civilized ku # 779 ~ irrelevant, humanly limiting exigencies vs. "the spirit of fact"/ on seeing

Northern Insuring ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

I am not trying to express myself through photography, impose my personality upon nature (any manifestation of life) but without prejudice nor falsification to become identified with nature, to know things in their very essence, so that what I record is not an interpretation—my idea of what nature should be—but a revelation or a piercing of the smoke-screen artificially cast over life by irrelevant, humanly limited exigencies, into an absolute, impersonal recognition. ~ Edward Weston

Now I'm not certain exactly what Weston means when he states that he is "not trying to express myself through photography". Perhaps it is a self-effacing attempt to not draw attention to himself because, in his mind, he is just a conduit through which "revelations" flow. Or maybe it's just his way of saying, "It's all about the pictures."

That said, I do appreciate the fact that Weston (in his picture making) did not to "impose [his] personality upon nature". That's a stance that stands in direct contrast, nature photography wise, to the "creatively interpretive" pretty-picture crowd about whom art critic / author Sally Eauclaire states ....

... Playing to the multitude of viewers who salivate at the sight of nature, such photographers ... [D]rawing upon the Hudson River School's legacy in painting, burden it with ever coarser effects. Rather than humbly seeking out "the spirit of fact", they assume the role of God's art director making His immanence unequivocal and obtrusive.

In any event, if the meaning of the word "nature" is expanded to include "the everyday world in which we live", I am, and have been, totally down (in my picture making) with the idea, of "a piercing of the smoke-screen artificially cast over life by irrelevant, humanly limited exigencies...".

You know, in the picture making world, it's kinda like in the real world wherein "the spirit of fact" is being trampled to death under the weight of the "truthiness" of half-baked beliefs.