The heyday of the image has led to the inevitable comparison between the different natures that these may acquire. Technique, always linked to creation, characterizes the form taken by a particular image. At present the video, a modern medium of reproduction, is opposed to the painting in terms of its effect upon the spectator: while the brush-stroke separates the background from the figure—that is to say, generates it—the video incrusts. A review of the meditations of such varied authors as Martin Heidegger, Jean-Luc Nancy, Michael Fried, Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges Didi-Huberman or Timothy Clark, together with the examples of artists—again of disparate nature—such as John Donne or Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, leads us to a deep reflection on the significance of the image. The question this work seeks to resolve involves the complex relation established between presence and image in contemporary life.