Werner Herzog - left darkroom print - right scanned neg and inkjet print

Artificial Intelligence in Photography - My Take

 

Few people understand that when Photoshop was initiated in 1987, shortly after, photographs could not be introduced as evidence at court.

With Photoshop penguins could be placed in the Sahara Desert. Before AI came into our world, I would state that Photoshop was an early form of AI. For a while, after 1987 Polaroids were trusted, but then even they began to deteriorate in belief.

I might add here that in my darkroom, up until 9 years ago, I was subjected to the limitations of darkroom prints. As soon as I started scanning my negatives and slides (Epson V700) and opening them in my Photoshop 8 (23 years old) I quickly discovered that my negs and slides had astounding  detail in the shadows that could not be seen in those darkroom prints. Photoshop was NOT inventing what was not there. I will assert here that contemporary photography profits with the combination of the technology of the last century with that of this one.

Here in Vancouver I know quite a few friends who have joined the AI bandwagon and they predict how wonderful our world is going to become.

As a film photographer, who also shoots digital, I have not ever used any form of AI nor will I, in my short future to come, since I am 84.

My friend Architect Abraham Rogatnick, who died 28 August 2009, politely told me 3 months before he died, “Alex, I am not long for this world and I am glad.” He was much to elegant so say, “After me the deluge.” Now I am feeling much like he did and I keep myself alive to take care of my 16-year-old female cat Niña.

I am not too sure anybody has approached how AI will affect our imagination. Picture a little boy or girl aged 8 taken to see the Mona Lisa. He or she might ask parents, “Why is she not moving or saying anything?

PS: As lovely as film (I hate the word analog) is to many people (I shoot b+w negatives, colour negatives and slide film in both 35 mm and in the 120 format) I do not miss my unventilated Kerrisdale darkroom nor the fact that I used a known carcinogen (Kodak Selenium Toner) to make my prints archival. . My good friend Jeff Gin (now the Kerrisdale Cameras manager in North Van) introduced me into digital with my first Fuji X-E1 and then the X-E3. He tells me that young men, mostly under 30, bring film to be processed to him and ask for small 3x4 inch prints. When they come to collect their prints and Gin gives them their film he is told to throw it away. What it boils down to is that they want to brag that they shoot analog.

For me photography began its current scary decline when cameras became gear and photographers gearheads.