In 1835, four years before the announcement of the invention of photography Caspar David Friedrich completed two landscape paintings, made on both sides of transparent paper. When lit correctly Mountain River Landscape (c.1830-1835) would alternately reveal images of a sunrise and a sunset. This commission from Prince Alexander, heir to the Russian throne, was installed with special display equipment and was to be viewed accompanied by music.
For C D F re-visits this pre-photographic, pre-cinematic moment by reconstructing a photographic negative using studio lighting gels and a light box. But in this work, another painting by Friedrich, Wreck in the Moonlight (c.1835) is appropriated. Here the outline of a ship is depicted, stranded on a rocky coastline.