Thomas Merton
[Writer, monk, and philosopher, b. 1915, Prades, France, d. 1968, Bangkok, Thailand.]

 ... Nothing resembles reality less than the photograph. Nothing resembles substance less than its shadow. To convey the meaning of something substantial you have to use not a shadow but a sign, not the limitation but the image. The image is a new and different reality, and of course it does not convey an impression of some object, but the mind of the subject; and that is something else again. 
 The camera does not know what it takes; it captures materials with which you reconstruct, not so much what you saw as what you thought you saw. Hence the best photography is aware, mindful, of illusion and uses illusion, permitting and encouraging it—especially unconscious and powerful illusions that are not usually admitted on the scene. 
 Man is the image of God, not His shadow. At present, we have decided that God is dead, and that we were his shadow... Take a picture of that, Jack!