I reached his old Parisian flat after carrying my heavy gear to the 6th floor without lift! He seemed straight out of a Velasquez painting of the Spanish court buffoons. I blew up the ancient electrical wiring with my English 240 W lamp. We hardly spoke a word, watching each other warily like two animals of different species: a truly surrealistic situation! I think that he did not know why I had come to photograph him and blow up his lamps…