Remedies for Nihilism

In Ecclesiastes King Solomon depressingly states: 

“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
 says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”

The photographer Robert Adams describes nihilism as "that downward pull that we all feel". Is life truly meaningless and futile, or can we look beyond ourselves and find something good in the most ordinary transactions of life?  Surely we owe it to ourselves to take up this consideration.  Are we not all called to look more closely, to attend to what is in front us, in the monotony of everyday life, and to find what is true, beautiful, and good?  But this seems a difficult task in the current age, where a culture of individualism and moral relativity confuses our thinking and our power to observe and reason. After all, art has lost its objectivity and is now uncertain of itself, it is a flowing river with no destination.

Is the work of an artist now open to any interpretation, and is the artist losing his right to convey his own certainties?  How does this leave the artist who considers it his job to shine a light on what he sees, and to fulfill the old traditional job of art, that is: to reconcile man to life, and to thwart the downward pull of nihilism?

Shadehouse view. Powells Road, Hamilton.

A-frame house. Ohaupo Road, Hamilton.

Marama Street, Hamilton.

Waipunga falls, Taupo.

Parana Park, Hamilton.

Farmland, Wairoa.

Main Street, Tologa Bay.

Sycamore tree. Peacockes Road, Hamilton.