ku # 527 ~ getting real

Tangled fallen trees • click to embiggenOne of the comments that I regularly encounter, re: the truth and the real, especially as those notions apply to my conceptual approach and practical to making pictures, is the absolute relativist's claim that there is no absolute truth and that any notion of the nature of reality is highly speculative.

Now, I like to sit around with friends (and some drink) and speculate (philosophically, of course) about such matters and it's all very .... well .... speculative and philosophical.

That's all well and good, of course, but at the end of the day, what matters most is where the rubber meets the road - how, based on all that speculative and philosophical stuff, one actually lives one's life. And, what is obvious to any aware, sensate, and sentient human being is that, in order to live a decent life in a sane society, he/she must agree upon commonly held / shared truths (derived from reality) which become the glue that holds it all together. Some of these truths are even thought to self-evident.

I bring this up for 2 reasons; 1) because my next couple entries will be about my re-writing of my artist statement as it applies to both my ku and decay & disgust bodies of work - both of which are wrapped up in notions of the real and truth; and, 2) because the irrepressible Mark Meyer has "stated", "... What I did say (and I stand by it) is that you don't have a privileged view of the Real world", and, that my tag line - photography that aims at being true ... - is either "silly", "insane", or, quite possibly both.

Regarding item #2, just let me state unequivocally that I, in fact, do have a "privileged" view of the real world - at the very least, the real world of the Adirondacks. I live here. I know it intimately. I am immersed in both it's past and present cultural and natural history. I know and live the rhythms of its natural cycles, its topography, its uniqueness as a model of sustainability on the planet (and all of the cultural / societal realities, past and present, that have had and continue to have a profound influence on the shaping of that reality).

It short, I live here and I am "privileged" to be able to do so. By exploring, in depth, as many of the possibilities of that privilege as I am able, I have, indeed, arrived at a place of "a privileged view of the Real world", Adirondack-style. For one to deny that would be ... well ... more than a bit "silly". And, if not "insane", at the very least, a denial of reality.

PS a note to Don who didn't know that Art could be so "testy" - art without passion is no Art at all.