Arsiema B. writes about the ever increasing popularity of Deviant Art, a web community for artists and photographers.
Once upon a time, if you saw someone with a camera happily snapping photographs in the streets of Asmara, you could be sure that they were a tourist. But that is no longer the case since more and more talented young Eritreans are taking up photography and displaying their work to an ever widening audience.
What have made this possible are the opportunities provided by the Internet. There are now websites on which artists and photographers can post their work, free of charge, and have the satisfaction of knowing it can be viewed by literally millions of people worldwide within seconds of posting.
One such site is Deviant Art, popularly known as DA. This site was started in August 2000 and now has an average of 4.5 million members logging in every day. ‘Deviants’ is the term given to the members while their works are called ‘Deviations’. It was founded as a community for artists and photographers to display their work and allow them to view and comment on the work of other members. The site grew rapidly to its present size with members from as far apart as Australia to Alaska and Kenya to Kazakhstan.
DA is a friendly site and for an artist or photographer – often the two are interchangeable – it offers a unique opportunity to learn from others who might be more experienced and willing to share their expertise. The opportunity to browse through millions of photographs is a wonderful chance for an aspiring artist-photographer to get new ideas and inspiration. But, as I said, it is, too, a friendly site and members find that they can make numerous friends of like-minded people with similar interests often from different countries and cultures.
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