Do you have a personal weltanschauung?

Over the last few days, there has been a raging argument in one of the forums about detail and texture. One artist lambasted another about the level of detail that he produced. He said many negative things about art which looked like photographs.

Now the thing is, who is to say that a work produced by hand that looks like another medium is not art? Now I am not talking about realism or photo-realistic work but perhaps hyper-realism. These are works that have mind blowing detail. You can view them from a distance and get the impression that you are looking at a photograph, then move in close and see detail, move closer and see still more detail until you are right on top of the work, and finally see the brush marks or pencil strokes. Do the same with a photograph - any photograph, and you will not get the same experience. Some people find this utterly fascinating, and others do not. That's not a good basis for arguing whether a technique produces a work of art or otherwise.

When an artists creates a hyper-realistic work, there is more detail in the piece than can be captured by any mechanical form. The artists can control what is in and out of focus, what details are left in, and what are excluded, and have total control over dynamic range and distortion. The result is something far more alive than can be seen even in the best photograph.

If any particular artist chooses to spend half a year working on one painting or drawing and creates mind-blowing detail, then people should either explore the resulting work and enjoy it or leave them to get on with it. For someone to target another's work based on some personal weltanschauung, I submit, is wrong.