heaven and hell

Work at CVK. After work I went to a tour of the photo exhibition The Power of Images. The exhibition is in the former stables of a Dragoon regiment (see extra). Really enjoyed the exhibition but I wasn't all that convinced about the talk. I recently joined a group of photographers Die Blaue Ampel challenging me to think about my photography. I am definitely not an artist. I do enjoy the craft of taking photos and I see myself more of a documenter and observer. After the guided tour was a discussion which quickly led to AI in photography. A lot of fear was raised and I think there was some misunderstanding as well. When AI was mentioned generative AI was meant rather than AI tools in general. I see AI as a tool that can be used in various ways, both good and bad, as any other tool. Personally, I am not really that interested. Because I am mostly interested in observing and documenting my image manipulation is pretty much limited to adjusting colours, cropping and the occasional removal of dust spots or distracting elements such as a photobombing bird (another form of dust spot) or branches. Oh, and I often fix the horizon or converging lines. Image manipulation and propaganda has been around for a long time. AI tools make the manipulation a lot easier. I think that is particularly problematic for films. The power of images has something to do with how we work. Our nervous system is geared towards image processing. So images can go straight into our heads. My fear of AI is that it will widen the gap between the underprivileged and the privileged even more and erode our sense of shared reality further. Divide and conquer for the privileged. But then, what is new?