Roland Barthes, whose philosophy of photography sprang from the loss of his adored mother, treasured photographs of the dead woman for their almost shamanistic value, as a kind of literal transcription of the light that emanated, directly and physically, from her living hair, her skin, her dress. Through these feelings he aimed at an unsurpassable definition of photography - as the place where death went when religion let go.
- Claudia Roth Pierpont
