I like your viewpoint and it definitely helps me to remain rooted in hope. Personally, I'm over trying to guess what's going to happen more than five minutes in the future. But I do want to continue creating, and not abandon film, so it's encouraging to know that it might actually be a great decision to continue being an elitist about manual analog photography.
A very interesting article. I have also pondered, as most working photographers have, where all of this will take us. I have worked with film for far longer than digital, and in its early days film clearly had the edge in quality. Over time, digital moved at such a pace that we are now watching apps step in where cameras once were.
Whether we like it or not, this is the direction things are moving, and for commercial photographers that is a real problem. I am not thinking about the big brand campaigns with famous photographers’ names attached. Those will probably always exist. I am thinking about the point you made, the local bakery, the small shop, the everyday business that can now put together its own “good enough” images without calling someone like us.
For many working photographers, those simple bread and butter jobs, the menu photos, the quick portraits, the small product shoots, are what quietly pay the rent. Take those away, or shrink them down to a handful of assignments, and it is the people trying to get established in the industry who feel it the most.
And this is where your analogy really hits me. At the top end, film is becoming a kind of luxury statement, a way to say “I chose the difficult path.” And rightly so, as film does possess a unique quality. However, the reality is that the analogue process often stops at the taking stage. Just like the images that accompany your article, the negatives are not turned into traditional photographic prints. They are scanned, colour graded, tonally corrected, and retouched in Photoshop, which now leans heavily on AI driven tools. The final file is then exported in a digital format and distributed online.
So although I am nostalgic and still use film, albeit sparingly, it does make me wonder where we will all find our place as this continues to shift.
Well, we have to look at what is the output of different areas of art. If their output is an image, a video, a text, a music (captured in digital format), then AI impacts it more than other art forms. Take sculpture, for instance, or any form of art that requires the manipulation of objects and tools. A few days ago I was talking to my niece and she told me about the increased interest in porcelain among young people. Cooking is another area that is gaining a boost from the menaces of AI. You can't fake a nice meal with help from AI, or can you?
Exactly. I completely agree with that statement and way of thinking. While AI is very effective on scaling repeatable things and canned content, it gracefully fails in the authenticity and originality. That's a limitation imposed by how the LLM works. They are just a massive and very effective system trained with huge amounts of information that are capable of providing an output based on what it knows and what it has indexed.
Great analogy with the cooking, porcelain pottery crafting, and everything manual, including film photography, of course.
I think we're going to see this "scarcity through difficulty" principle reshape entire industries. Even in cooking: while meal kits and AI recipe generators make decent food accessible to everyone, the chefs who still break down whole animals and ferment their own ingredients are commanding higher prices than ever.
The 'AI overdose' you mentioned is so real. I'm already seeing clients specifically requesting 'no AI' in their briefs. It's becoming the new 'organic' label. Thanks for expanding the thinking, as this could be a whole series of posts!
Thank you, Walmir! Really appreciate that. Are you seeing similar shifts in your field? I'm curious if this pattern is emerging beyond just photography and into other creative disciplines.
I like your viewpoint and it definitely helps me to remain rooted in hope. Personally, I'm over trying to guess what's going to happen more than five minutes in the future. But I do want to continue creating, and not abandon film, so it's encouraging to know that it might actually be a great decision to continue being an elitist about manual analog photography.
A very interesting article. I have also pondered, as most working photographers have, where all of this will take us. I have worked with film for far longer than digital, and in its early days film clearly had the edge in quality. Over time, digital moved at such a pace that we are now watching apps step in where cameras once were.
Whether we like it or not, this is the direction things are moving, and for commercial photographers that is a real problem. I am not thinking about the big brand campaigns with famous photographers’ names attached. Those will probably always exist. I am thinking about the point you made, the local bakery, the small shop, the everyday business that can now put together its own “good enough” images without calling someone like us.
For many working photographers, those simple bread and butter jobs, the menu photos, the quick portraits, the small product shoots, are what quietly pay the rent. Take those away, or shrink them down to a handful of assignments, and it is the people trying to get established in the industry who feel it the most.
And this is where your analogy really hits me. At the top end, film is becoming a kind of luxury statement, a way to say “I chose the difficult path.” And rightly so, as film does possess a unique quality. However, the reality is that the analogue process often stops at the taking stage. Just like the images that accompany your article, the negatives are not turned into traditional photographic prints. They are scanned, colour graded, tonally corrected, and retouched in Photoshop, which now leans heavily on AI driven tools. The final file is then exported in a digital format and distributed online.
So although I am nostalgic and still use film, albeit sparingly, it does make me wonder where we will all find our place as this continues to shift.
OMG what a quality comment, so rich for the discussion. THANKS!!!
I agree with every single comma you wrote.
Well, we have to look at what is the output of different areas of art. If their output is an image, a video, a text, a music (captured in digital format), then AI impacts it more than other art forms. Take sculpture, for instance, or any form of art that requires the manipulation of objects and tools. A few days ago I was talking to my niece and she told me about the increased interest in porcelain among young people. Cooking is another area that is gaining a boost from the menaces of AI. You can't fake a nice meal with help from AI, or can you?
Exactly. I completely agree with that statement and way of thinking. While AI is very effective on scaling repeatable things and canned content, it gracefully fails in the authenticity and originality. That's a limitation imposed by how the LLM works. They are just a massive and very effective system trained with huge amounts of information that are capable of providing an output based on what it knows and what it has indexed.
Great analogy with the cooking, porcelain pottery crafting, and everything manual, including film photography, of course.
That's a nice insight!
I really think this makes so much sense!
And I would expand this way of thinking to so many other things...
Everything that is unique will gain more value once everyone has the power to do ordinary things with AI.
It’ll create an overdose of AI stuff everywhere, making it so cheap and ordinary that no one will care about it anymore.
Let’s hope this becomes reality.
I think we're going to see this "scarcity through difficulty" principle reshape entire industries. Even in cooking: while meal kits and AI recipe generators make decent food accessible to everyone, the chefs who still break down whole animals and ferment their own ingredients are commanding higher prices than ever.
The 'AI overdose' you mentioned is so real. I'm already seeing clients specifically requesting 'no AI' in their briefs. It's becoming the new 'organic' label. Thanks for expanding the thinking, as this could be a whole series of posts!
Great insight! You’ve hit the nail in the head, congrats!
Thank you, Walmir! Really appreciate that. Are you seeing similar shifts in your field? I'm curious if this pattern is emerging beyond just photography and into other creative disciplines.