def sem(im, direction='X'):
    r"""
    Simulates an SEM photograph looking into the porous material in the
    specified direction.  Features are colored according to their depth into
    the image, so darker features are further away.

    Parameters
    ----------
    im : array_like
        ND-image of the porous material with the solid phase marked as 1 or
        True

    direction : string
        Specify the axis along which the camera will point.  Options are
        'X', 'Y', and 'Z'.

    Returns
    -------
    image : 2D-array
        A 2D greyscale image suitable for use in matplotlib\'s ```imshow```
        function.
    """
    im = sp.array(~im, dtype=int)
    if direction in ['Y', 'y']:
        im = sp.transpose(im, axes=[1, 0, 2])
    if direction in ['Z', 'z']:
        im = sp.transpose(im, axes=[2, 1, 0])
    t = im.shape[0]
    depth = sp.reshape(sp.arange(0, t), [t, 1, 1])
    im = im*depth
    im = sp.amax(im, axis=0)
    return im