A few minutes latter the sun had risen above the trees and the stronger rays highlighted the dusty grass tree. The green looks washed out because of the layers of dust caused by the everyday road traffic.
The roadside vegetation in mid-autumn is very dry and dusty. I fell into the grass tree whilst photographing and my clothes were covered in dust. Rain is needed to wash away the layers of dust that have settled on the vegetation. Some autumn showers are expected in the next few days and, hopefully, the roadside vegetation will start to freshen up.
This object approach to photography breaks with the standard accounts of what photography is, which are dominated by the notion of the human subject. Their emphasis is always on how the meaning of the photograph is to be located with respect in the relation between the image and a human subject or subjects. A popular account is art photography as a medium of individual expression, or conscious artistic intentionality.
The object approach, in contrast, in its orientation towards notions of objectivity and realism connects the photograph to a non-subjective reality, and so de-prioritises the human subject. In this case the emphasis is on the non-human condition of the grass tree and so outside, or beyond, my conscious human subjectivity.