Incandescent Vision

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Work in progress

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Our survival instinct causes our eyes to close quickly, abruptly, and automatically if we accidentally look at the sun.

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Despite this, for centuries, different cultures around the world have established a transcendental connection with the act of looking directly at the sun. This blinding experience has been interpreted as a way to recharge, a contemplation of mystical light, or a way to contemplate God.

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When we briefly gaze at the sun or another light source, a bright area appears in our field of vision, which becomes clearer when we close our eyes. These residual images, called "afterimages," occur when our retina retains the image or light once the external stimulus has stopped.

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They take the form of that light stimulus: a spot, a circle, a trail, or a scribble if there has been movement while looking at that light. Their color changes and they gradually fade until they disappear after a few seconds.

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Later, in the digital age, this phenomenon became popular through optical illusions circulating on the internet that played with eye strain and color inversion.

Ernst Mach, an Austrian physicist and philosopher, called these optical phenomena "ghosts of vision" and explained: "When we withdraw the retina from external stimuli and direct our attention only to the field of vision, remnants of ghosts are always present."

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This is an optical experience produced by the visual system and displays physiological colors that belong solely to our body and its functioning. Through this photographic series, they shape an imaginary of our senses and abilities.