I have spent a fortnight reflecting on my past work and the direction of future travel as I’ve moved images from one online gallery to another. It has been a while since I’ve written a blog and I’ve therefore decided to put pen to paper.
At a local networking event I was chatting with a group of fellow creatives when the conversation turned to AI. We all agreed it’s useful — for research, organising stuff, and taking some of the general grind out of work. But there was this shared sense that, no matter how clever it gets, there will always be a space that only humans can fill. In my work as a documentary photographer, that’s really clear.
If you want authentic photographs — real people, real moments, real life — AI just can’t do it. It can churn out images that look convincing, but it can’t witness anything. It doesn’t stand there in the cold, waiting for the light to change, or build trust with someone who’s letting you into their world. Photography, for me, has always been about being there in the moment. Those human connections, that lived experience, that’s what gives the work meaning. AI can help along the way, but it can’t replace that.
Here’s a bold statement: AI isn’t going to kill creativity. What worries me more are the people who could commission creative work but don’t/won’t. Usually for one of two reasons: either they don’t really get the value of good, authentic imagery, or they hide behind the excuse that there’s little or no budget.
AI can make pictures, but it can’t “read the room”, it can’t build trust, and it can’t understand the weight of a moment (by that I mean a moment to pause and perhaps not take a photograph as much as to take the photograph). Real photography is about being there — presence, empathy, timing and truth. That’s what gives a real photograph its depth and integrity.
What really leaves me jaded, though, is how the industry sometimes treats its own. Promises of work that never show up, or the suggestion that a working photographer might want to spend a week on a popular TV programme voluntarily — as if experience alone pays the bills (and the terms “exposure” and “loss leader” doesn’t cut the ice).
So no, AI won’t kill creativity. But if we keep undervaluing real craft, real people, and the human experience behind the work… well, that just might.