For me the true business of photography is to capture a bit of reality (whatever that is) on film. . . if, later, the reality means something to someone else, so much the better.
I remember as a child reading or hearing the words 'The Great Divide' and being stunned by the glorious sound, a proper sound for the granite backbone of a continent. I saw in my mind escarpments rising into the clouds, a kind of natural Great Wall of China.