hello everyone I am now starting my BA on photograhy and I have to wright an essay about digital art and photography SO I want you to tell me what you believe about digital art. Has it helped you at all? Do you think it threatens traditional art/photography? Do tell

Digital media will never threaten traditional. That’s like saying colored pencil is threatening oil paints because you can create something of the same effect with them and the people who do call it "colored pencil painting". Photoshop, painter, etc are just tools and like anything else can’t give you talent. You can "cheat" with any media, and like anything else "cheating" with digital media (using filters, etc) leads to a persons work looking cheap 9 times out of 10. I think a lot of people who harp on digital artists don’t really understand what it means to do a digital painting or drawing. I’ve heard a lot of people saying "you just click a button and you have a masterpiece". On the contrary, its actually much more difficult to achieve convincing texture and so forth with digital media because you really have to rely on your own observation and knowledge of color and light to do so as you are working in a strictly 2 dimensional media. Yes a person can use filters to create texture, but a person can use stencils and paint splatters to create texture on paper or canvas just as quickly and easily. And as I said before, both generally come off looking sort of cheap. Yes, a person can get brilliant colors easily with digital media whereas other media (oils, watercolors, etc) can get muddy. Every media has its strengths and weaknesses. A person should always consider what is best for a piece and accept that what may be good for some kinds of work may not be good for others.

In short, nothing will ever replace hard work and good ideas. Computers are only tools, not brains and hands. A computer can’t create art, much the same as a computer cant make a person’s art better. It is, in my opinion, ridiculous to get heated over it, and pretentious and arrogant to make it seem less important or less profound than any other medium.

hey feral thaks for your answer

I agree with what you say about the fact that people believe computer programs will draw better drawings for them.

amen like my teacher says, computers are stupid. They do only what we tell them.