I exposed myself to the sun surrounded by photos of people laying out in the sun.

These analogue snapshots come from my collection of photos bought second-hand, and found in family albums of unknown people. I performed daily for three months in different beaches in Barcelona (Spain). The action of the sun decolorized the photos and tanned my body. After this long durational performance, all the decolorized pictures were shown as a photo-installation in a neoclassical chapel at the cemetery of Mataró, Barcelona (see andresgaleano.eu/al-sol).

This performance reflects on the essence of Photo-graphy (i.e. drawing with light), on light as an agent that both enables and destroys the photographic image. I re-enact the found photo album’s pictures of people sunbathing in order to underline the popular and amateur approach to photography: the naive realism, which identifies the portrait of someone with the portrayed person him or her self, without questioning the issue of representation. I show the performance in public beaches, that is, within a popular and vacation context, without being framed as an artistic event.

“Al sol” (In The Sun) points out that all images are in movement (even the apparently static ones) and reflects on the desire of Photography to document and transcend the moment—its continuous aim to capture time and, consequently, its divine vocation and unsuccessful attempt to provide immortality.