Photography (n.) is a stand-in for religion as a place in which death is encountered insofar as the image produces death while trying to preserve life. The photograph thus supplies a kind of death outside of religion, outside of ritual, a kind of abrupt dive into literal death.
Photography (n.) is subversive, not when it frightens, repels, or even stigmatizes, but when it is pensive, when it thinks.
Photography (n.) is an art in which one begins by photographing that which is notable and then soon decrees notable whatever one photographs. By this reversal, the 'anything whatever' then becomes the sophisticated acme of value.
Photography (n.) is unique in that the amateur stands closer to the essence of the field than does the master.
Photography (n.) is the emanation of the referent, and its truth is a stubborn fidelity to the thing that was there.
Photography (n.) is mortal, like a living organism: born in silver grains, it flourishes briefly, ages, and fades.
Photography (n.) at its truest is a mood of mourning, because it bears witness to what has been and will not return.