Netflix’s latest true crime documentary, What Jennifer Did, has come under fire for allegedly using AI-generated images. Released on April 10, the documentary centers around Jennifer Pan, convicted of a shocking kill-for-hire plot targeting her own parents.

[embedded content]

You can even spot one of the problematic images in the trailer (the one I screenshotted above). Show viewers noticed this, and other images, around the 28-minute mark of the movie. Here, Pan’s high school friend describes her as a “bubbly, happy, confident, and very genuine” person. A series of seemingly relevant photos accompany these words but at a closer look…

The image in question shows Pan flashing peace signs, but just look at those hands! They look like they came straight from the early days of Midjourney. It’s hard to tell AI and photos apart today, but this one’s so painfully obvious if you ask me. Further, the viewers’ inspection revealed two additional photos featuring Pan in the same red dress, also showing signs of AI manipulation. While the exact editing process remains unclear, experts suggest the producers might have used a single source image to fabricate additional “photos” through AI.

How ironic!

You see the irony too, right? The use of manipulated imagery in a documentary? This raises some serious ethical concerns.

True crime thrives on presenting a factual narrative, and visuals play a crucial role in storytelling. When those visuals are obviously altered, they completely undermine the documentary’s credibility. This can also potentially skew the viewer’s perception of the case, creating bias and misconceptions.

Netflix has been silent so far regarding the accusations. Sadly, they’re also not the first to come under fire over using AI imagery in a movie, but the problem is that this movie was supposed to depict actual events and people. Sigh.

via [PetaPixel]

Wildlife photography is a difficult genre of the craft and often requires cutting-edge equipment to pull off, which in turn requires a high premium. Or does it?

I have done various forms of wildlife photography over the years, but it is not my bread and butter of photography. However, when I’m reviewing a pre-release camera, I am often given the tools to do so and expected to. For example, in Costa Rica, I was given an Olympus body and a howitzer of a telephoto lens on loan to photograph the local creatures. What I was holding while capturing shots of parrots, monkeys, and sloths was worth far in excess of $10,000 and it was, for the most part, necessary. To capture what I wanted, I needed a lens that could reach far into the distance and a body that could handle the settings needed. So, what on earth is the average photographer to do that doesn’t have that sort of cash.

Well, it’s not the cheapest genre to get into and never will be, but we’ve been in the digital realms of photography for so long at this point, that much of the cutting-edge tech of yesteryear has fallen in price. There is also the nether zone between old gear and new gear that can have a bargain. So, if you want to be a bird botherer on a budget, this video is for you.

French Butter, the food and beverage production company, has announced the signing of the accomplished tabletop director and still photographer Jennifer Davick to its roster. Jennifer, who’s based in L.A., brings not only her finely-honed flair for evocative visual storytelling but also access to her fully-equipped Los Angeles production facility, Ingredient Studios, to the French Butter fold. To view her work, go here.

With an eclectic background that includes significant magazine editorial experience prior to her segue into motion work, Jennifer’s showreel boasts work that strikes an appealing balance between dynamic food photography and buoyant lifestyle vignettes, spanning such brands as Starbucks, Fresh Direct, General Mills, Hillshire Farms, Williams Sonoma and others. In a macro study in lusciousness, her short film documenting the sumptuous black sesame dessert at San Francisco’s culinary hotspot Lazy Bear won both the NYC Food Film Festival’s “Best Food Porn” award along with “Best Film Short” in the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year Awards.

French Butter’s founding director Brett Froomer is excited about the potential Jennifer’s signing represents for both the company as well as for the director herself. “Jennifer’s eye and aesthetics focus on modern sensibilities towards people and food,” he observes, “and her fresh and enthusiastic personality allows her to approach what’s in front of her lens with a distinctly feminine signature. She’s the entire package – director, photographer, DP and a bright, intuitive character. I’m thrilled to be working with her at French Butter.”

In signing with the woman-owned company, Jennifer says she’s looking forward to being at a food-focused boutique that’s working at the cutting edge of production. “For me, French Butter is appealing because we have a very similar drive. And Brett and I share some common values, too; we’re both very passionate about the work.”

Jennifer says she’s bid against French Butter in the past, and was introduced by a mutual producer contact. “And it just felt like a good fit,” she remarks. “We both have a lot of drive, and work really hard. I see a future for us where we’re setting the standard for innovation and creativity, and adding a sense of emotional resonance to the work we produce.”

Jennifer’s career has taken her from posts in Washington, D.C. to San Francisco, Tel Aviv, New York and Birmingham, Alabama – where she developed a love of Southern cooking – to her final stop in Los Angeles. At each step along the way, she was introduced to new people, new flavours, new tastes and new ingredients; all of them have contributed to the mosaic of styles and influences that drive her career as a filmmaker and photographer. Her transition from stills to motion started during her tenure as senior food photographer at Time, Inc., working at the vaunted lifestyle icon Southern Living magazine.

“I was really interested in that type of storytelling, these feature articles on food, they spoke to so many layers of what I enjoy doing,” Jennifer recalls about her intro to directing. “And there was this complexity to motion that I really enjoyed as well, so the progression felt truly organic.” She describes her work as “comfortable and approachable, sometimes even magical. I fervently believe that food has the power to connect people.”

“Adding Jennifer to French Butter is a tremendous boost in more ways than one,” said executive producer Irec Kriske. “Not only is she supremely talented, with an air of sophisticated confidence about her, but she’s also an amazing entrepreneur: building out and managing a studio space, as she’s done on her own at Ingredient Studios in L.A. With her on board, French Butter adds a West Coast studio to our infrastructure, in addition to our 20,000 square foot Pilsen Studios in Chicago. It gives us tremendous range when it comes to meeting clients’ needs, whether those be creative, budgetary or technical.”

Jennifer savours the possibilities, too. “I joined French Butter to be part of a team, and I think theirs is particularly strong, while also feeling more intimate. I love the fact that I will be a part of this wonderfully talented roster including Brett and Etienne Proulx. And I think I’m going to thrive in this environment. We all share values but offer distinct differences in our approach, which will let us overlap as a team and support each other. This means our clients are going to get really good results.”

Storch – who is the first Kaalaleq (Arctic Inuit) artist to have a solo exhibition at the Venice Biennale – aims to capture ‘the Greenlandic everyday’

With that in mind, WePresent decided to put together New Rules, a new series that will positively tackle how to thrive as an artist in unstable creative industries that are changing beyond all recognition. “New Rules: Navigating photography’s unfixed future” is a group portrait by photographers, curators, tastemakers and editors like Emily Keegin, Bubblegum Club, Janina Sabaliauskaitė, Campbell Addy and Antwaun Sargent, many of whom stepped away from the traditional trajectory to find a different path. They have crafted alternative routes forward, embraced marginalized voices and built new infrastructure for coming together to share work and life. None of this was easy, but for many of these artists, as you will soon learn, the real risk was to resist evolving at all. This is not a moment for staying still. It’s time to be part of the change.