I'm back to Argentina after visiting family and Norway's snow-covered mountains in early autumn.

My son Alexander (oglaend.deviantart.com) and me had a short but adventurous trip, seeing most of the spectacular mountains in the south of the country. We both have upgraded our photo-gears, with a Nikon D3 and a Nikon D3x and some new lenses. If we take terrible photos, we can hardly blame the equipment.

We must never forget that camera-house and lenses are merely tools. It's the photographer that creates and masters his/her art. And it doesn't need to be called art either, a photo can merely be a good/bad creation and handcraft As we know photography consists of everything from documentary to creative studio-photographing. The art might appear in any photo-style, depending on the unique idea and concept and the quality of the work. Even a photo of a kitten can be art, although the criteria for judging such kind of photos should be rather strict. When we see a lot of kittens among most popular at Deviant, we should be beware. Something might be out of proportion. Art is in my opinion more about individuality and uniqueness than about copying. Fashion is different than art. Here everything is about copying and making in large scale. The more publicity, the more popular. But fashion is not necessarily art.

To create after one's own heart should be the core and the credo of any wanna-be or established artist. That is; if you really want to create art of great value.

Popularity is not and will never be a measurement of an artwork's quality. That is something we all should have in mind here at Deviantart. An artist like the painter Van Gogh never sold much as a living artist, nor did Botticelli. They were far beyond their own time, and they didn't get recognized for their works until after their death. What exemplifies both, is that they were true to what they created, it came from their heart, from everything that they were. Even the world was not ready, they still created from a strong impulse coming from a hidden resource within. To create is to look inside oneself, not outside. Everything outside is chaos. What the artist actually does, is to create inner order of outside chaos. Photography is therefore deductive. From chaos, we create order and therefore personal expression

With that in mind, I still work to create one great photo every year. If I touch one heart, I know I've succeeded. Mostly I fail, but that only makes me hungry for working harder and push myself to break new limits...

-alfred-