This is an interesting question that comes up all the time and seems to keep reoccurring. When will you give up film photography and move to digital, is something that is asked of me from time to time? My answer has been consistent since digital photography moved into the mainstream. Personally, my answer is, “I will give up photography completely if I have to go digital.” Plain and simple. . . I will never be able to create serious art with a computer.
My entire life has been spent in and around the electronics world. I began using a computer when the first Commodore Vic 20 hit the market. I had to learn computing in order to stay current in the engineering world. I see a computer as an engineering tool. It is not a toy, not a game machine, not a source of entertainment. It is a tool for designing complex machines and circuits. . . for navigating to the moon, and the stars. One thing is certain for me, it is not a device for creating my art.
I use a computer for work; I use it to write; I use it to access the Internet; I use it to communicate with others; I use it to update my BLOG; and I use it to host a web site. These to me are not artistic endeavors.
In my mind, a computer is not where I go to express myself visually. It is not where I go to create my art. In front of a monitor I am in a working mindset, mostly thinking in left brain mode. Creativity requires a catalyst. Only out in the field with my camera under the dark cloth, or in the darkroom does my mind really shift into right brain ‘creative’ mode. It is impossible for me to think in an artistic manner when clicking a mouse and looking at a monitor.
I know I have written about this before, but the same question keeps coming up, and my feeling about the subject does not change. This is how I work and how I think. The creation of art is a very personal thing and requires you think in a particular way. For me, I can only create when I am in the proper environment, and cyberspace is not the proper environment for me.