AI and the Death of Photography, Edward Bateman and Robert Hirsch.
‘Tombstone reads: “In Memory of Photography, 1826 – 2025, A Witness to truth, A Keeper of Light, Killed by AI, A Replacement that never touched the moment.” This image has been circulating online as a visual critique of AI’s impact on traditional photography. While the exact creator of this image is not definitively confirmed, it has been shared by various photographers and artists expressing concerns about AI-generated imagery. One example is a Facebook post by photographer Wes Snyder, who shared the image alongside a caption stating, “As a professional photographer I don’t think photography is dead or that AI – Artificial Intelligence can ever kill what we do as professionals.” This suggests that while Snyder, shared the image, he may not be its original creator.’
When he first saw a photograph around 1840, the French painter Paul Delaroche despaired; ‘From today, painting is dead!, he said. It captured the anxieties that surrounded the technology when it first emerged in the mid-19th century. He was wrong. Are our anxieties about AI equally misplaced?