AI is just one of the thorny issues facing photography – here’s how the industry can prioritise ethics; The Conversation, October 21, 2024

Savannah Dodd, Postdoctoral research fellow, Centre for Creative Ethnography, Queen's University Belfast , The Conversation; AI is just one of the thorny issues facing photography – here’s how the industry can prioritise ethics

"While questions of image ethics are not new, this crisis is only deepening with the exponential growth in the production and use of AI-generated images.

It is often difficult to differentiate between photographs and photo-realistic AI-generated images, and the lines between the two are being increasingly blurred as AI images are sold on picture library platforms and used by advocacy campaigns for charities. AI images are now being used in the campaign for the upcoming US election, perhaps most famously with an AI image of Taylor Swift endorsing Donald Trump.

Despite the ongoing discussion about photography ethics, practice is sometimes slower to change. This can create a tension between those who espouse more traditional approaches to photography, and those who are critiquing those approaches. This is contributing to polarisation within the industry and a growing uncertainty about how we can use photography ethically today.

As an anthropologist who teaches visual media ethics, I am interested in how professional photographers think about and practise ethics in their work. This year, as part of my research into this topic, I analysed 48 interviews I conducted between 2020 and 2023 with people working in photography.

These interviews focused particularly on the perspectives of professionals, including those whose voices have often been marginalised within the industry. This includes black photographers, photographers of colour, photographers in the global south, disabled photographers and female photographers. All of these interviews are publicly available online."