A podcaster I listen to on a regular basis talked about a book by Minor White, Mirrors, Messages, Manifestations. His discussion led into photography may be a metaphor. Since listening to that podcast yesterdy, I have thought about this a bit. Merriam-Webster defines a metaphor as; an object, activity, or idea that is used as a symbol of something else. To me, that is essentially what photograph is, a symbol of something else. It isn’t the object represented. If that is the case then in most photography, realism doesn’t matter. The photograph is merely a symbol. Reality, or as close to it as we can get is only critical in documentary photography. Everything else becomes open to artistic creativity.
Having now come to this realization I finally have my arguement for creative expression of nearly all the photographs I will take. My work is a metaphor for this object represented in the image. I feel like I have been set free. Think about it. I believe it is hard to argue against photography as being a metaphor for the people, scenes, and objects we photograph.
Photographer Clay 
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