A tiny body suspended in immensity. A black silhouette, sharp, almost unreal, perfectly aligned with the solar disk. This image, voted “photo of the year” several times by the international press, is not a montage. It is the result of a shared obsession, almost surgical precision… and a hell of a lot of nerve.
Entitled The Fall of Icarus, the photograph refers directly to the Greek myth: Icarus, intoxicated by flight, flies too close to the sun, melts his wings, and falls. Here, the image plays with the same symbolic tension: human audacity in the face of a cosmic force that surpasses it. The difference? This scene is very real, captured from Earth in a perfectly calculated fraction of a second.
The work is the result of a collaboration between a professional skydiver and astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy, known by the pseudonym Cosmic Background. Their idea was to capture a man in free fall in front of the Sun, using astrophotography techniques—solar filters, astronomical alignment, opposition effect—usually reserved for eclipses and cosmic phenomena.
The feat is also technological. Created using a superimposition of 2,000 identical images, the final photo eliminates sensor noise and the effects of atmospheric turbulence.
Everything had to be synchronized: exact location, solar time, trajectory of the gliding aircraft with its engine cut, angle of the sun, focal length, real-time communications between the pilot, photographer, and skydiver. Five attempts failed. The sixth was successful.
The result is stunning: the silhouette of the skydiver stands out against a star whose structures and even the solar flares are clearly visible.
The image has been widely reproduced by the international press, which has hailed it as an unprecedented technical feat and an already iconic image.
Beyond the performance, the image tells the story of the encounter between man and the Sun, between risk and control.
The video below shows behind-the-scenes footage of this feat, from the preparation to the exact moment when everything comes together.
