Photography in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
This week's episode of Modem Futura explores the changing relationship between photographer and photograph as AI transforms the art of image making
[Image: Image: Midjourney — view image]
Back in the day when I started messing with cameras, what you saw was what you got … sort of.
Of course, there were a myriad things that transformed what you could see through the viewfinder into a final image — the camera’s shutter speed and aperture, the type of film used, and how it was developed and finally printed. But you, as the photographer, were in control — and there was a clear line of provenance between the subject and the final product.
But artificial intelligence is changing this. Computational photography — where computers and AI do an increasing amount of heavy lifting in the image capture, processing, and production process — is altering the relationship between what someone sets out to create and the final result.
And while this is incredibly liberating for many — think of the gazillions of stunning photos flooding the web from smart phones — it’s also calling into question what it means to be a photographer an an age of AI.
My co-host Sean Leahy and I grapple with this question in this week’s episode of Modem Futura. We both spend a lot of time with cameras, capturing the world through photographs[1] so we couldn’t resist a deep dive into the history of photography and how increasing compute power and AI are changing this.[2]
Along the way we touch on everything from the difference between an image and a photo, to how AI is fundamentally changing the relationship between the camera and the art of image making.
Listen below, or on Spotify or YouTube — time stamped links are included below if you want to jump in at specific points:
Jumping in points (approximate):
00:00 Cold open, and introduction to photography, imaging, and technology
05:01 Introduction, and the impact of smartphones on photography
09:30 A brief history of photography
21:35 The smartphone era
24:30 The rise of computational photography
37:20 The democratization of photography
38:30 Artistic expression vs. capturing reality
43:15 Inserting intelligent tech between the photographer and the photograph
49:00 The Balance of control in photography
53:40 AI enhanced photography
59:05 Manipulating reality
01:05:45 The value of human perspective in art
And as always, a reminder that you can watch is recording this week’s episode on YouTube:
Thanks for listening!
Notes
Note 1. ↩
Just in case you’re interested, you can see a selection of Sean’s photos here — which are way better than mine (not surprising as he used to actually teach photography!).
Note 2. ↩
I’m embarrassed to admit that, if you listen closely, you’ll hear a glaring error from me. While we were talking about Apple’s first digital camera (released in 1993) I refer to it as a 480 pixel camera. What I should have said is that it took 640 x 480 pixel images — still rather low resolution, but a little higher than a poultry 480 pixels!