2023
“What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”
~ Karl Lagerfeld
“The camera is an excuse to be someplace you otherwise don’t belong. It gives me both a point of connection and a point of separation.”
~ Susan Meiselas
Another change of employer in late 2022 brought back the possibility of longer transatlantic trips, in particular, one to Bologna and Florence in 2023. The possibility of AI image generation and/or manipulation became an creative and ethical conundrum.
While I appreciate that AI focus correction saved one of my favorite images from 2023, I am resolved not to use it again. See the blog post, “Successful Street Photo or AI cheat?” on Medium for a longer discussion of that one image.
See the note at the bottom of the page for more information about the one photograph on this page where AI focus correction was applied. The use of AI is clearly marked in its caption.
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Use of AI image correction
To my mind, a true "street photograph" is one that captures a moment in time as the photographer saw it, without the addition or removal of any part. I will crop images to improve composition, but I will not change the content within the crop. I will correct exposure and color balance, I will convert to black and white, but I will not remove a fire hydrant or add a reflection, etc. However, there is one image on this web site and on this page where I allowed myself to use an AI tool to correct the focus of a photograph, i.e., the one of the woman in white polo neck sweater standing in a dark doorway:
This photograph was perhaps my favorite image from 2023, but I am conflicted about my use of AI to correct my bad focus. I failed to capture the moment as I saw it, and I fear that using AI to correct it is a step too far. I love the image and want to show it, but I have to be honest and flag that AI was used.
See the blog post, "Successful Street Photo or AI cheat?" on Medium for a longer discussion of this image, the use of AI to render it, and how I probably won't use it again.