Always in serach of new means of artistic expression, Pierre Jahan experimented with the photogram, rayogram or solarization processes. The disembodied mannequin hand is repersentative of the artist's closeness with Surrealism. In November 1948, a fire breaks out in his studio, lightly damaging several photos, amongst which this one. Pierre Jahan decided that the end resukt of the lightly burnt and uneven edges was aesthetically pleasing, and will exhibit the works as such during his life, in a very conteporary turn.
A snapshot by Pierre Jahan himself, that was conserved in the Henry Buhl (exhibited in the Guggenheim Museum of Art in New-York in the "Speaking with Hands" exhibition), represents a view of this very burnt photo in the aftermath of the studio fire.