“To collect photographs is to collect the world.”

When photography was invented in 1839, it was viewed by some people as a threat to traditional art forms such as painting or drawing. This is because photography was seen as a new technology that could produce images more quickly and accurately than traditional methods. Some artists felt that photography was not a true art form because it did not require the same level of skill and creativity as painting and drawing. Photography is often seen as a medium that portrays an objective reality showing the truth of a situation. Yet the subject, framing and composition of a photograph are all shaped by the subjective choices of the photographer. In other words, every photograph tells a story about the version of reality it is portraying. Artificial intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. Specific applications of AI include expert systems, natural language processing, speech recognition and machine vision. AI can offer many benefits, such as improving efficiency, accuracy, accessibility, and quality of life. However, AI also poses some risks, such as displacing jobs, invading privacy, creating bias, and undermining human dignity.

“A picture captures a moment, not a lifetime. A picture, once taken, is filed in the past – cherish the memories but do not dwell on them. Go create new moments worth capturing!”

In the past before digital age photography has been manipulated by using darkrooms. A darkroom is used to process  photographic film, make prints and carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of light-sensitive photographic materials, including film and photographic paper. Darkrooms have been used since the inception of photography in the early 19th century. Darkrooms have many various manifestations, from the elaborate space used by Ansel Adams^[1] to a retooled ambulance wagon used by Timothy H. O’Sullivan.^[2] From the initial development of the film to the creation of prints, the darkroom process allows complete control over the medium. The image below is of a train with workers on the front driving past the Taj Mahal taken by Steve McCurry. At first glance this image seems to be normal image of workers on a train, but taking a closer at the image many may say that the image ‘is too good to be true”. The fact that the train is in perfect position in front of one of the most famous buildings in the world doesn’t seem that it has been captured in the ‘moment’. By doing some more research we may be able to say that this image was set up and it may have taken a few takes to get the ‘perfect’ image. On the other hand some will say that the image shows the Taj Mahal and its environment. The conflict between the serenity of the Taj Mahal in the background with the smoky chaos of the steam engine in the front. This contrast is highlighted strongly due to both of these subjects achieving a similar amount of real estate in the photograph.There is also a big color and features contrast between the graceful white architecture of the Taj Mahal and the unsightly features of the steam engine. In my own opinion i like the image think it shows contrast in the country and can also relate to many other countries, but i do think the image is staged as its a very rare and ‘perfect’ image to capture.

Steve McCurry, Taj Mahal and train in Agra, 1983

In our day and age photography has been altered over hundreds of years photography has changed and advanced from photographic film to mobile uploads on apps such as Instagram and snapchat. Pictures have transformed from a black and white pixelated film into colourful, vibrant, clear image of anything your eyes capture. Photography can even be generated on things like photoshop without a camera. These can be generated by describing and writing prompts to AI technology. For example on ‘dream studio’ you enter what you would like it to create, it will take what you have searched and put it all together to create an image. This will create whatever you tell it to, even if it is impossible for this to occur, for example ‘A fish riding a bike’ this almost impossible for this to happen. In the image below which has been generated by AI the man in the image is trying to get past the police to get somewhere. The image below looks almost like a real image and some people will say that this creates a false information about situations or people. ‘Focus, looks at the rise of generative artificial intelligences capable of producing fake images worthy of real photographs, a phenomenon that poses new challenges to the fight against misinformation.’ This is from a local news report saying that AI is creating misinformation, which could be damaging to photographers as they may think that AI technology is taking over their jobs. I personally think that AI technology takes away the uniqueness of taking an image, the effort put into taking a photograph on a camera has a different skill to creating an image on an AI software.

False image generated by photographer David Fathi via Midjourney showing Emmanuel Macron in contact with police officers. Credit: David Fathi / Midjourney

Can photography lie? I think that photography can lie. Photographs can lie by manipulating images to make them appear different from the original. In both of my image examples the images have been manipulated or staged, if you didn’t do further research into the image you would not know you are being lied too. This can be seen in modern day AI and historical photography, so it has not just stemmed from modern photography. Examples of historical photography been altered could be things such as retouching with ink or paint or using a darkroom. I personally think AI is a creative way to explore photography and allows people to access places or locations they may not be able to reach. I also think that it can help people to create dreams of theirs in these AI software spaces. On the other hand it can also be damaging to people jobs, for examples if we can create images on AI then we do not need the photographers to take images.