Death of an Image #4-C is a limited-edition photograph from Andrea Galvani’s series Death of an Image. To make this body of work, Galvani uses objects, mirrors, and smoke to create disturbances in viewers’ physical perception of landscapes. Through detonations and other interventions, Galvani likewise alters viewers’ sense of time, whether capturing a split-second action otherwise incomprehensible to the naked eye or revealing a place’s properties through slowly unfolding processes.
This image was taken in the Greek countryside on a hot summer day. It was produced by placing mirrors in the branches of a tree and in the surrounding area, and then aligning them so that their reflections converged upon the camera’s lens. The resultant constellation of white lights anchors the image as a kind of negative focal point—a void that centers the viewer’s attention. Death of an Image #4-C depicts a momentary epiphany of orchestrated light, highlighting the disruptive properties of something that otherwise leaves no physical trace.