Art is in my opinion a unique field of creativity, in that through the artist we can be given something which can not be expressed in any other way. The job of the artist is to convey, and by that I mean in terms of emotion and meaning and food for thought. But when I see such works which are indistinguishable from photography it seems to me at least that art as a field of creativity loses some if not alot of the very reason it was invented in the first place. Also it is good to involve the viewer and even allow the viewer to participate in the act of creation. Hyper realism seems to me to deny this kind of collaboration between artist and viewer and I mean this in a critical way. It shows immense skill to show a scene which appears like a photo, but there are drawbacks as there is with all things. I have seen many hyper realistic works and in my view they all have at least one thing in common which is almost like a common failing. They more often than not depict scenes which are actually very mundane and if they were photographs they just might be judged as mundane as photographs aswell. Having the knowledge that what I see is in fact a painting does not suddenly make the image ascend in my mind to a level of greatness. Why? Because the image is the image whether it is a painting or a photograph. It is what the image conveys in terms of meaning, that is what makes art and the artist interesting. I personally feel and think that the greatest artists had another common denominator, which is that they conveyed something which did not exist in the eye in the real and natural world. Through art they conveyed things which spoke, to the intelligence but also to the heart and to the soul. They also involved the viewer. I will take three artists to represent this kind of conveyance of meaning and expression and things which do not exist on any other level or in any other form. Rembrandt Van gogh Picasso These artists conveyed much and knew what they were supposed to be doing as artists, which is to convey expressively, and to convey meaning and food for thought. For example the starry night by van gogh. This is a masterpiece because it involves the viewer and the artist is central to the picture. It manages in one image to convey meaning as a painting, as a commentary on starry skies, but also conveys what is at work in the heart and soul and mind of the artist. All the things I've mentioned which in my view constitutes great art is what does not appear in hyper realism. I'm not saying that hyper realistic artists are not capable of conveying, what I am saying is I've not seen one yet.