Action Photo I (From Pictures of Chocolate), 1997
Vik Muniz, born Brazil 1961
Dye destruction print

Vik Muniz takes well known images remembered from endless reproductions and recreates them from memory, using household materials like sugar, chocolate, and thread. He then uses the camera to record them. Muniz creates a witty and uncanny effect by translating well-known images into strange visual puzzles. We can either suspend disbelief by imagining the ‘original’ photograph which inspired his invention, or think of his work as virtuoso pieces of drawing which last only seconds for the camera before melting or disintegrating.

Dye destruction prints are made using print material which has at least three emulsion layers, each one sensitised to a different primary colour - red, blue or green - and each one containing a dye related to that colour. During exposure to a colour transparency, each layer records different information about the colour make-up of the image. During printing, the dyes are destroyed or preserved to form a full colour image in which the three emulsion layers are perceived as one. Dye destruction prints are characterised by vibrant colour. The process used to be called Cibachrome: it is now known as Ilfochrome.