Photography and Reality

... after the shutter is pressed, the reality of that moment ceases to exist. In this sense, it can be said that photography does not stop or freeze the time lived within it, but rather kills it.
That is, the moment a photograph is taken becomes "past" immediately after it is taken. In other words, the "present time" of when the photograph is taken transforms into "the time it was taken" the moment the shutter is pressed. This time is not related to the exposure time, because it is an element of time production. The illusion that arises here is the ability to capture the elusiveness of reality in a "moment."

In photography, something quite different from a mere representation of reality, something that can be called the "trace" of reality, appears. It is neither an impression by a painter nor an externalization or expression.

The "trace" of reality is a completely different psychology, and it appears beyond the understanding of previous psychologies. It is a "thereness" and a "nowness": traces of reality etched onto a light-sensitive plate... Every photograph has a definite date and place, even if we don't know which one it is. At least we are sure that it was taken on that date and in that place, and that we read the reality of the people there from their traces...