Hi SG
I understand that you are trying to align an image over the left hand corner of a subplot. It is not possible to do it while using axis image since this command will fit the axes box tightly around the data. Below is a simplified example code snippet that performs the desired functionality.
>>im=imread('peppers.png');
>>subplot(2,2,4);
>>axes('position',[0.57,0.15,0.25,0.25]);
>>imshow(im);
You can use 'position' property of axes object in order to position the image at the desired location within the figure.
Hope this helps!
Usha