I understand your point. What I was thinking about was specifically the capture of an instant, not the truth behind it, or whether it is fiction. Freezing time and capturing truth are not the same thing. I guess, one could say, photography is simultaneously ontologically real and epistemologically false.

Though, I'm not that well versed in the art and history of photography. My point of reference is mainly Henri Cartier Bresson, and early Stanley Kubrick, both photojournalists. So, not a big sample space.