The Impending Death of Photography in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.

Introduction

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly transformed numerous industries, and photography is no exception. As AI technology continues to advance, the foundations of photography as we know it are being shaken, leading to a looming question: Is traditional photography facing its final days?

The Rise of AI in Photography

Since the 2000s Visual AI preceded large language models (LLMs) in many ways. Before the rise of LLMs much of AI research and deployment focused on narrow AI systems, especially in computer vision — the field that powers photography-related AI. From face recognition to portrait and beauty mode and photography manipulation enhancements like content-aware tools where AI replaces selected parts of an image to denoising and upscaling. Today, with the advent of generative AI, the concept and every detail of an image can be created entirely from scratch (pixel by pixel) using nothing more than a short text prompt.

As AI models become more sophisticated, they can mimic artistic styles, generate realistic images from scratch, and even create dreamlike visuals that challenge conventional notions of photography. This raises profound concerns among traditional photographers regarding the uniqueness and authenticity of their craft.

Impacts on Professional Photographers

The increasing reliance on AI poses significant challenges to professional photographers. Whereas photographers once held a prized position based on their technical skills and creative choices, AI now enables anyone with basic knowledge of technology to produce stunning images comparable to those crafted by experts. As a result, the barrier to entry in the world of photography is being lowered, leading to potential oversaturation in the market.

Moreover, clients may opt for services involving AI-driven creative processes, resulting in reduced demand for traditional photography. While this does not indicate that traditional photography will entirely disappear, it's already carving out many paid professional hours. The visual imaging industry meaning not only the creators but a whole host of people: stylists, set designers, post production artists, make-up including their team of assistants to name a few cannot compete with a text prompt.

The Future of Photography

Generative AI can fabricate flawless images in seconds, but what it cannot replicate is the lived experience behind the lens. Traditional photography shows the value of actually being there: the patience of waiting for light, the discipline of composition, and the unrepeatable context of a moment that actually happened. These qualities give photographs a credibility and emotional resonance that AI outputs lack. As audiences grow more skeptical of synthetic images, the demand for authenticity will only rise. Far from being eclipsed, traditional even analog or film photography are positioned to become cultural counterweights—art forms that prove their value precisely because they cannot be automated

Conclusion

The impending death of photography as an industry is real. If smartphones, merely a tool for photography, can threaten its viability, how much more will a substitute for the actual "image maker" (already astonishingly "professional") supplant an entire industry?

AI, for now, mimics what is already out there. So all human creativity and artistry to date is A.I. AI isn't your Windows PC, an App or a text field. It is all of us: words, images, thoughts, feelings, reason and intelligence in AN ALL-Encompassing entity.

That said, it will not be an outright eradication. How do I know? I will continue doing what I love and so will many others. Will it be enough for it's survival? That depends if the surviving humans can ultimately defeat Skynet down the road ; ).