Rhein II or notes about the construction of the visibility of photography within contemporary art

The paper addresses the case of Rhein II, a photograph by German artist Andreas Gursky, sold in an art auction for about four million dollars and considered until recently as the most expensive photograph in the world. Based methodologically on the NetworkActor Theory, the paper analyzes the processes of construction of the meaning and the value assigned to Rhein II and aims to evince that they set not only the experience of art and of its objects but also draws attention to the issue of representation in the domain of images and to the changes in the functions and patterns of production, circulation and legitimation of the photographic image in art and in the forms of Organization of our aesthetic experience in this context.