AI Imaging is here to stay. Whichever way you feel about the advent of artificial intelligence, that horse has well and truly bolted. That of course raises concerns about the future of real photography. Will it still have relevance in an age when photos can be created by typing a few words into an app?
My opinion is yes, and not only yes. I believe we now live in an age when real world photography will become an even more vital tool in telling the truth, recording history and telling personal stories.
I want to kick off with my personal story and the inspiration for this article. It begins with my late father’s camera.
Revealing A Personal Story Through Photography
I recently wrote an article about shooting film for the first time in 20 years. I was using my late fathers camera. To cut a long story short, I shot that film in Durham in North East England. Durham was a place that my father had planned to move to with his then fiance.
That sadly never worked out. However after he passed away I found a whole load of old photos of him and his fiance. They appeared to have been taking in a hotel in the late 80s, and I had a strong hunch that the hotel was in Durham.

As you might imagine, hotels have changed dramatically over the years and despite searching all the Durham hotel websites and many other resources, I could not match any of those images to a modern day location.
That was until a few weeks ago. A lady, presumably a guest, had uploaded photos of the Royal County Hotel in Durham to its Google Map entry. In one image there was a set of columns with some very distinct styling. Those were the exact columns seen in the image of my father. I had located the exact place he had stayed some 35 years previously.
This anecdote is a simple yet powerful example of why even throwaway, snapshot photography should be treasured, nurtured and protected against the rising tide of AI.

The Effect Of Real Photography On Global History
The power of photography to change world history, often for the good, is well documented. It is believed that the powerful images such as those by Eddie Adams, Nick Ut and many others, helped sway public opinion in the US against the war.
Kevin Carter’s The Struggling Girl brought global attention to the famine in Sudan, whilst Steve McCurry’s images show a sad beauty in a harsh world.
Real photography in particular photojournalism has and always will have the ability to change global perceptions of events. This is, in particular, a genre of photography that is at severe threat from AI imaging.
Whilst most are content to use poor, obvious looking AI images for engagement farming, there are political groups that are quite happy to use AI to create “alternative truths” to global issues. These groups are often well funded and with very advanced AI imaging tools. They target gullible audiences through social media, and can wield immense influence on major events. This isn’t some dystopian future, but a current reality.

How Can Real Photography Fight Back?
The strongest argument that real photography has, is that it is real. I believe it is becoming increasingly important that we shoot RAW, or even film. This gives us a direct link back to the original source and authenticity of the image.
Given the threat from AI to camera manufacturers, I would expect them to start offering more in-built authentication features into their products. The use of blockchain NFT style certification would be able to stamp a unique ID to each photo.
More use of GPS within cameras would allow observers to confirm geographic locations of images. There is plenty that can be done by the real photographic community to protect and preserve the authenticity of images.
Beyond the cameras and the photographers, there should be more development of free, integrated AI detection tools. The concept that AI is a completely original image is incorrect. AI images are built through algorithms scraping millions of real world images. That data can be back-traced to a certain extent, making it fairly easy to identify AI shots.
Social Media platforms are slowly introducing AI detection, however given their recent record on protecting the truth, I would not hold much expectation on them helping. However, companies like Apple and Microsoft could build AI detection into their browsers, not only for images but for the written word too.

It’s Also Down To Us Photographers
For everything that camera and software companies can do, it’s also down to us photographers to promote the importance of real photography.
That starts with integrity. There has been a notable decrease in the morality of some photographers in recent years.
This is fueled not only by the dopamine hit of likes on social media but also the increasing numbers of competitions offering substantial financial rewards. This downward spiral is tempting some photographers into using AI to “enhance” their images.
As a community we need to call this out. Not only in competitions but online in social media. The more we highlight the use of full AI or AI in real images, the more we can train non photographers to identify it.
If as a photographer we add an element into the shot using AI, then we must be upfront about it. Case in point is the number of lighthouse pictures I have seen with beautiful light beams emanating from them. Whilst some might be real, there are quite a few being depicted on lighthouses that have been derelict for years.

The average non photographer probably doesn’t care but this, as I suggested earlier is the thin edge of the wedge. The more accepting the general public becomes of AI, the more susceptible they will become to manipulation on a political scale. As photographers we need to become the filter between the real and artificial.
It is my personal feeling that real photography, whether it’s the deep, global changing work of a photojournalist or the simple fun of taking an iPhone shot, is more important now than at any time in history.
We don’t have to go out with protecting photography in our mind. We just need to go out and continue taking real photos