“As an object, a photograph has its own life in the world. It can be saved in a shoebox or in a museum. It can be reproduced as information or as as advertisement. It can be bought and sold. It may be regarded as a utilitarian object or as a work of art. The context in which a photograph is seen effects the meanings a viewer draws from it.”

Stephen Shore, The Nature of Photographs

“The world is three-dimensional; a photographic image is two-dimensional. Because of this flatness, the depth of depictive space always always bears a relationship to the picture plane. The picture plane is a field upon which the lens’s image is projected. A photographic image can rest on this picture plane and, at the same time, contain an illusion of deep space.”

Stephen Shore, The Nature of Photographs