Has Artificial Intelligence changed photography forever?
IT’S EASY TO THINK THAT PHOTOGRAPHY IS DEAD considering how AI now rules the digital imagery seas. In a matter of seconds, it’s possible to create any image one can imagine. Want to climb Everest? You are there! Have Angeline Jolie join you! You will have a photograph to prove it …
But …
Who the heck is going to believe it? And what the heck would you do with such an image anyway? It’s a novelty, a joke. Something to be quickly forgotten once the initial fun of the technology wears off.
The impact of AI will linger on, though. As fast as AI has changed the way we think of photography, it has just as quickly stolen our trust in photography and along with it, the emotional value we have with pictures in general. What value is there in any image if we can’t trust them as real?
Of course, we can still trust photographs.
We may not believe images that we were not involved with but if we take pictures of ourselves, we know — we know — those moments are real. And that will continue to make them special.
Standing in front of a camera to have our photograph taken is a deliberate and conscious act. The more intentional the process, the more intense will be our connection to the images that ensue. When we pose for a photographer, joined by our friends and families, we are creating a real moment and that memory stays with us for as long as we have that image to see and share.
Images that live with us in our homes as tangible artifacts have even more impact. We don’t need more digital files on our phones. More than ever, we need art on our walls, to remind us of special moments we create with intent with our friends and loved ones.
The AI fakes, such as the one below, will disappear from our minds almost as quickly as we make them. The real images, the ones we strived to make and cherish enough to give a permanent place in our lives, will stay with us for a very long time …
Fake me and fake Angelina at the top of fake Mount Everest…