This chapter lays the foundation for an ontology of photographic social practicesontology of photographic social practices, presenting a philosophical framework that examines how photographs function as vehicles for communication through speech acts. It builds on Dominic LopesLopes, D.’s “social turnsocial turn” by incorporating ideas from John SearleSearle, J.’s social ontologysocial ontology, emphasizing that photographic practices are rooted in collective intentionalitycollective intentionality. These practices have a perceived functionperceived function that defines the illocutionary purposeillocutionary purpose of photographs within the practice. The chapter analyzes how the felicity conditions for the uptake of speech acts, understood as the illocutionary purposes of the practices, can function as constitutive and regulative rulesregulative rules. A typology of the conditions that serve as rules will be proposed. We will examine how adherence to the rules of the practice enables the attribution of a status function to a photograph related to the practice and, consequently, the assignment of deontic and epistemic powers. The chapter also distinguishes between conventional and non-conventional contextsconventional contexts. In conventional contexts, adherence to constitutive rulesconstitutive rules allows for non-intentional communication, where the mere use of a photograph implies a communicative intentioncommunicative intention linked to the practice’s perceived function. In contrast, non-conventional contextsnon-conventional contexts rely on Gricean reflexive intentionreflexive intention to determine the illocutionary forceillocutionary force of photographic communicationphotographic communication.