Lou Stoumen titled his final autobiographical book Ablaze with Light and Life. Seduction is not the same as consummation. It is not about completion, but is about attraction and a propensity for the appearance of things rather than their deeper reality.
Seduction is about thirsting.
Stoumen was drawn to life, to people of power, as well as to strong social situations. His appreciation was for those apparently living life intensely, if only for a moment. Photography is the ideal medium for recording appearances. It cannot easily penetrate surfaces without added contextual interpretation. It was realized early that an image might be easily seen as having multiple meanings.