Why Photography Is More Than Just Images—Even in the Age of AI

Starting Out: A Camera, A Dream, and A Lot of Fear

I started my photography journey back in 2017 - that was the first time I picked up the camera with the intention of turning it into a profitable business. The intention was to offer actors headshots and portraits, but I have never done a commercial shoot for a paying client before. It was very scary - I was nervous, didn’t know anything about directing models / actors, and definitely had not much of an idea of how to use light. Forget about any artificial light - that terrified me. I was going to do just fine with the sun and some clouds!

I distinctly remember my very first sessions - the results were very poor, judging by my own personal standards, but luckily it was free, so I thought - the worst case scenario - nobody is going to use those images.

From Portraits to Fashion: Discovering Artistic Freedom

It was the beginning of an exciting journey, but soon enough I started thinking of fashion and working with models; dreaming of creating more artistic, elaborate work. It turned out to be very fulfilling and a lot more freeing, and with all the practise, I became more confident in using the natural light and working with models.

As I mentioned before, the use of flash lights seemed daunting, something I avoided for a long time. But I decided to take that step and, as with everything we are scared of that we’re not familiar with, it turned out to be easy - the setting up, the experiments, the manipulation of light. Through a series of test shoots I eased into the use of artificial light, and now it’s just a matter of knowing what kind of effect I want to achieve and directing the light to do what I want it to do.

The Heart of Creativity: Why Human Connection Matters

This journey of overcoming fear of the unknown leads me to AI. Last year, I was quite worried about what AI is going to do to all us creative souls out there - the photographers, the illustrators, the filmmakers. It is definitely on the course to reshaping how we make artistic work. The reason why I love production so much - be it photography or filmmaking - is the camaraderie of different people coming together to make something that will be shared with the rest of the world. The hard work of coming up with the idea, building it out into a project, planning actions and sourcing talent, then showing up on set to make it all happen, all the way through to final touches in editing and post-production. It’s an intense process, and time consuming, but the pay-off of achieving a common goal with the collaboration from other human beings, it’s what makes all the work such a wonderful experience. Are we to lose it all to entering prompts on a computer?

Experimenting with AI: Friend or Foe?

Technically, you don’t need a whole team of experts to make a video or an image now - it can be all done by just you and the computer. The results are controversial - on one hand, the systems can create some stunning work, on the other hand - at what cost? By drawing from all the art that has been inputted into the world wide web. The licensing and copyright is a delicate topic still - who gets the actual credit?

We can argue that we all “steal and borrow” from all the work that came before us. We look for inspiration in films that have been created by others, photography that was produced by different teams, the paintings that were painted by artists from different epochs. Technically then, the computer is doing what we have been all along, but much faster.

The Future of Art in a Digital World

I have been experimenting with some of the AI tools myself over the past few months, namely Adobe Firefly and Midjourney in order to “understand the enemy”. There are many others popping up, but from my recent learnings Midjourney is way ahead of its competition - despite occasional “hallucinations” which are quite fun to observe, it produces very realistic images, and allows quite a few options to edit and vary the outputs.

I am, however, mostly focusing on Firefly tools. What I respect about Adobe’s stand on AI is that it only trains it’s system on it’s own stock photography or on the work that its users voluntarily provide, compensating them for doing so. It is also commercially free to use - so no issues with regards to licensing and copyright.

Aside from the technicalities of the tools, my goal with the AI is not to replace what makes photography production so exciting to me. I still want to use real models, I want to create and plan projects with other artists alongside me; to brainstorm ideas, challenge concepts and imagination by fusing the real and the artificial.

There is so much that can be done with these tools that’s mind blowing; the way it can blur the lines between the reality and fantasy is very exciting to explore, and quite fun to play with. AI is a powerful tool. But the magic? The human connection, the collaboration, the shared vision—that's irreplaceable, and I hope it stays that way.