Secondly, why are art critics and art photographers disinclined to consider the indexicality of a photograph. Or, if they consider it, they consider as something of no great moment. The importance of indexicality. And the magic of sympathy - things that are similar to each other are the same. Thus, you burn in effigy the image of someone you wish to harm.
Photographs participate in both.
There are lots of stories about people who believe that a part of themselves is taken away when they are photographed. John Thomson experienced difficulties making his memorable photographs during his travels in China in the 1870's. Throughout all, the photograph, at an important level, remains attached to its referent. The referent is omnipresent. This, of course, is what fascinated Roland Barthes in his last book, La Chambre Claire.