Interesting thoughts. However, would we ever go back to, say, horseback
for travel? washing clothes using stones and a local river? The list is
endless.
Talent alone is not determined by amazing technical skills, but
technical skills are critical in helping to release talent..
Are arms and fingers essential for painting great pictures? If you think
so, then look at the world of foot-artists (or should that be feet-artists?)
See, for example,
http://www.amfpa.com/
If I want to be a brilliant brain surgeon then I have to have not only
great talent but also highly sophisticated technical skills.
To create a great oil painting, then likewise.
I could eqally have amazing skills - but be a lousy artist because I
have no talent. (I haven't either! Though if I like my results, does
even that matter? And does it prevent me from appreciating paintings?)
To be a talented photographer do you need to precisely how to use a
darkroom? Exactly how to do a Jerry Uelsman print?
Today photography, being a technologically based subject (even in the
days of film and CC you had to know exactly what to do and how to do
it,) has changed enormously and for the better because it has opened up
photography to many more users (see below). And that, I think, is the
rub. If you go back to early days of photography, artists were
contemptuous of many photographers because they had no painting skills.
So the photographers tried to impress everyone with their new skills and
imitate as much as they could of the painting process. Today some
die-hard film photographers seem almost to "resent" the ease with which
digital photographers produce outstanding images.
I honestly believe that what matters in producing works of art is the
end product, not the means of achieving it.
Howard
(Since photography has gone digital, I have seen a major upsurge in the
number of interested students at my school - from 7 / year to 40+ /
year. From a minority subject, it is now a major player in the 16-18
year old student curriculum.
That's because they all have digital cameras.)
