AI Killed the Stock Photography Star
And it is a good thing for the rest of the field
This fear that generative AI models like MidJourney will take our jobs away is spreading like wildfire among illustrators, graphic designers, and even photographers .
A lot of this fear is based on solid grounds. These models are getting incredibly powerful and WILL replace many of our current commissions. But my bet is they will also create a lot of new ones.
A photograph owes its powerful effect to the fact that we trust in the mechanical nature of its process. It is what I call The Genius of Photography. We understand that somebody had to be at that place at that time and press the shutter, which triggered a mechanical process of capturing the rays of light coming through the lens. That process is entirely physical and (at least in principle) can’t be altered. Sure, there are many ways in which a photographer can alter the image, but the basis of the process is produced by dead cold physics.
This is why a single photograph, no matter how small or blurry, of Jesus or Noah would be of greater value than all of the paintings and frescos done afterward. Because when we look at a fresco in a church, we know that the artist’s hand shaped his face; there was a deliberate decision to make the beard such and such.
