"My Mechanics" is a series of 57 diptychs created for Sebastien Delage’s third album, TURBOSTERONE. Invited to contribute to the album’s fanzine, I embarked on a creative road trip inspired by the raw emotion of the album’s spoken interludes and its automotive themes.
The project fuses the worlds of cars, garages, and metal with the vulnerability of the nude male body. Each diptych juxtaposes portraits of “mechanics”—archetypes of masculine identity—captured in a workshop setting. The images explore the tension between lifeless metal and raw flesh, reflecting both the album’s themes and the complexities of queer culture: its codes, its toxicity, and its beauty.
Sebastien’s lyrics served as a blueprint, guiding the creation of distinct characters. The photo shoots were intimate, with each model arriving alone, their “collision” happening later in the editing process. Sébastien’s presence lingered in the background, his image pinned to the walls like an erotic pin-up, a silent witness to the unfolding narratives.
The result is a visual symphony of paradox: tender and raw, fragile and hard, mysterious and exposed. Like the men and machines they evoke, these images are oiled, sweating, and scarred by the tension they carry.
Special thanks to my Beautiful Mechanics—Benjamin, Even, Florian, Tobias, and Mathieu—and to Sebastien, my queer pin-up, who oiled the engine.