Sciagraphy

Clarence John Laughlin, The Lamia Returns, 1941

My central position, therefore, is one of extreme romanticism - the concept of "reality" as being, innately, mystery and magic; the intuitive awareness of the power of he "unknown" - which human beings are afraid to realize, and which none of their religious and intellectual systems can really take into account. This romanticism revolves upon the feeling that the world is far stranger than we think; that the "reality" we think we know is only a small part of a "total reality"; and that the human imagination is the key to this hidden, and more inclusive, "reality."

- Clarence John Laughlin, The Personal Eye

Clarence John Laughlin, The Masks Grow to Us, 1947

It therefore should be possible for even the photographer - just as for the creative poet or painter - to use the object as a stepping stone to a realm of meaning completely beyond itself.

Clarence John Laughlin, We Reached for Our Dead Hearts, late 1940's (est.)