A second, corrected edition of Vladimir Levashov's popular essay, first published across several issues of the journal Iskusstvo Kino in 2000. Explaining his approach, Levashov writes that the invention of photography revealed a startling property in life itself: while remaining recognisable, it could be turned from a continuous flow into a scatter of objects that could be copied and multiplied - a marvellous toy, drawn from the heart of nature through technical ingenuity, that loosened the authority of the Word and the uniformity of Law, carving out a separate and ever-expanding domain for human, personal, subjective presence in the world, placing beside the laws of nature the no less fixed rights and needs of the human sphere: fantasy, private experience, subjective vision, chance impression.