towards a definition of photography

I have finally found a definition of photography as art that satisfies me:

“One might compare the art of photography to the act of pointing. It must be true that some of us point to more interesting facts, events, circumstances, and configurations than others... The talented practitioner of the new discipline would perform with a special grace, sense of timing, narrative sweep, and wit, thus endowing the act not merely with intelligence, but with that quality of formal rigor that identifies a work of art, so that we would be uncertain, when remembering the adventure of the tour, how much our pleasure and sense of enlargement had come from the things pointed to and how much from a pattern created by the pointer.”

MoMA photography curator John Szarkowski helped elevate photography to the status of art in the 20th century (thank goodness). He passed away on Saturday. What he describes is just what I mean to do with my photography -- to point. There are things I tend to point at that probably constitute a pattern and could comprise a tour. A good photography book certainly gives me the feeling of having been on a very specific tour dense with meaning.