Photography & A.I.

My take on the impact Artificial Intelligence will have on photography.

Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park, Alberta Canada. This image, shot by the author is an example of the type of images Artificial Intelligence could be used to create. Photo by Mark Spowart.

I have been lucky enough to be a working photographer for most of my professional life. And I’ve been around long enough to remember when one camera was loaded with colour film and the other camera with black and white.

Early on in my career I worked for a daily newspaper. While I was in the newsroom, I wasn’t in the photo department. My position back then was working as editorial clerk in the business section of the paper.

It was a great job, I loved it. In addition to regular duties, I would be asked from time to time to re-write a news release for publication, or on the really good days, be asked to photograph an event or shoot a quick picture for publication.

I would grab my camera’s and as much film as the editor would give me and head to the event. Arrive and announce who I was shooting for and then make sure I’d get back in enough time to pass my film to the darkroom technician who would develop and print my precious work.

The technician probably hated me. I was some young kid, who was giving him more work to do. He was professional enough to take me through the process step by step. Showing me the good the bad and the ugly on my negatives, then finding a few decent options he would print for the section editor to review.