Via Julia Newhouse:
“Ok.. yes nowadays photorealism is non functional… in art history tho it did have value in that it was one of the only ways that art was taught.. trains the eye to capture exactly what you see… requires skill, patience, observation of minute details…feelings, personal interpretation and creativity didn’t come into play until renaissance period…that said, there are several professions that require these realistic skills: painting restoration, portraiture, building art/murals,natural/scientific illustration… which I did professionally.. even tho our staff had medical photographers, it was important as illustrators to eliminate the bloody and unnecessary visual parts to make it palatable to the readers, mostly medical journals, texts, etc…and now all of that is unnecessary bc one can alter any Photo/drawing to make it look like it was hand done..so no it is not creative, but I think a mastering of technical skills…
Addendum: plus my work was done in the days before computers!
So, don’t agree that it’s the lowest form of art.”