If you keep even half an eye on global mainstream news, you will have probably seen what has surely become the most famous piece of AI-generated imagery to date. ‘PSEUDOMNESIA | The Electrician’ was created or rather ‘prompted’ by German photo media artist Boris Eldagsen. The portrait (see it on his website (opens in new tab)) is, admittedly, a very beautiful image indeed, and the folks over at the Sony World Photography Awards 2023 obviously thought so too, because Boris’s entry won the 2023 Creative category. Here’s where things get really interesting – he declined to accept the award… 

What’s ensued is a rather messy situation with conflicting narratives from the World Photography Organisation and Boris himself (there’s a detailed breakdown of events on his website and reports from numerous news outlets). But what matters is that an AI image, however knowingly or unknowingly, won a category in one of the most prestigious photography awards in the world. 

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Boris’s reasoning for entering the image was to facilitate a discussion around AI imagery, and he’s certainly achieved what he set out to do. So here’s my two cents. Firstly, there’s no place for an entirely AI-generated image in a photography competition, because it’s not photography. A photograph is created when light exposes a sensor or a piece of film, if these elements are not at least partially involved in the creative process then the image simply isn’t a photograph.

Things get complicated when you consider the use of AI-generated imagery alongside a photograph to form a composite. As far as I’m concerned, such images can only be judged on a case-by-case basis, and this is nothing new. Photography competitions have to deal with a variety of variables that may or may not breach rules or ethics, and many are very hard to prove/disprove. I’ve judged many competitions myself and for this reason, it’s becoming an increasingly difficult job. 

Unless governments really decide to crack down on AI-related regulation – need I remind you of the massive maelstrom that is social media – we’re witnessing the tip of the AI iceberg. The creative industry is going to have to weather the AI tide, much like traditional painters and illustrators had to ride out the advent of photography. 

As I said before: AI is changing the creative industry, but it won’t kill photography. And yet, the line in the sand has to be made now. AI will become an art form in its own right – arguably it already has – but it is not photography.

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London’s Courtauld Institute of Art has opened up its internationally-renowned collection of photographs to the public. It worked with 14,000 volunteers over five years to digitise more than one million images from The Conway Library.

Among them are images that offer a striking glimpse of the Middle East in the mid-20th century.

The photographs, in crisp black and white, depict Yazidi celebrations in Lalish in Iraq’s Kurdistan, refugees from Palestine making bread in Beirut, the Bedouin of Jordan, as well as landmarks such as Aleppo’s Grand Mosque, Mosul’s Great Mosque of al-Nuri and a medieval Armenian castle in the Adana region of Turkey.

The high-resolution photographs, along with the rest of the works in the Conway Library collection, are now available to browse online via The Courtauld website.

The Conway Library houses more than one million images that span the inception of photography to the present day. They include photographs of world architecture, sculpture, paintings and decorative objects. It includes unpublished images that reveal the extent of the damage across Europe following the Second World War, as well as TE Lawrence’s photographs of Saudi Arabia.

The project also includes 160,000 prints by Britain’s leading architectural photographer of the 20th century Anthony Kersting, documenting his extensive expeditions across the Middle East.

Since 2017, almost 2,000 in-person volunteers aged 18 to 86 have worked closely with The Courtauld to catalogue and photograph every image in The Conway Library collection — the majority of which have never been seen before. Volunteers were recruited from a wide variety of organisations, schools and charities, including The Terrance Higgins Trust, The One Housing Foundation, BeyondAutism and My Action for Kids. A further 12,000 volunteers participated remotely online.

“When we began the ambitious project to make The Courtauld’s Conway photographic library available online to the public in 2017, we expected no more than a handful of volunteers,” Tom Bilson, head of digital media at The Courtauld and director of the digitisation project, said.

“It turned into the largest public inclusion project in The Courtauld’s history — working with a truly diverse community of volunteers to engage with some of the most vulnerable people in our society, many of whom have historically been excluded from these kinds of opportunities in the heritage sector. Projects such as this have the capacity to transform cultural organisations by aligning it closely with new audiences that perhaps could never have been reached.”

Updated: May 05, 2023, 7:58 AM

Known for his droll, often farcical photographs of everything from sunburned holidaymakers to sozzled hen dos and rain-soaked British royalists, Martin Parr has another side: a curator, collector and champion of photography in all its forms. Parr was the guest artistic director at one of the world’s most prestigious photography festivals, the Rencontres d’Arles, in 2004 – a vintage year, critics agree – and curated the 2010 Brighton Photo Biennial, introducing many new talents to a wider audience. In 2017, he set up the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol to showcase emerging or neglected UK-based documentary photographers.

This year he is the Master of Photography at Photo London. To celebrate, FT Weekend Magazine invited Parr to select six living photographers whose work he loves and explain why. A miniature exhibition, if you will. — Andrew Dickson

Clémentine Schneidermann & Charlotte James

I came across Clémentine’s work when she was still an MA student at the University of South Wales. She had this really fascinating project going: she’d been working with a stylist called Charlotte James, taking pictures of kids from a former mining town in the Valleys. Clémentine is from France originally, but Charlotte grew up in that area. As soon as we saw the pictures, we offered them a show at my foundation in Bristol in 2019, which gave Clémentine one more summer to shoot.

It’s Called Ffasiwn is a great combination of landscapes and fashion photography (“ffasiwn” being the Welsh word for fashion). The kids would make these extraordinary clothes, guided by Charlotte, and then Clémentine would shoot them in estates, in front of houses, against the landscape. The kids look great; you can tell they’re all in on it. The prints are big: when you see them on the wall, they really dominate. It’s great to see a young photographer produce such strong and bold work; I can’t believe she was still a student.

For the opening, we hired a coach and all the teenagers came across. It was the first time some of them had been in an art gallery, I think. Even now, I remember the squeals of delight.

Markéta Luskačová

The 78-year-old Markéta Luskačová is, to my mind, one of the best photographers living in the UK. She’s originally from Prague and arrived here in the 1970s. Her work documenting London’s Brick Lane and Portobello Road markets, which was shown at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1991, is stunning. (Markéta’s images are the most distinctive I’ve seen of these well-documented areas.) She even did a book on the musicians that played there; you can tell they were totally relaxed with her photographing them.

In the late 1970s, she was commissioned by the Side Gallery in Newcastle to photograph the nearby seaside town of Whitley Bay. Markéta brought her toddler son with her and would leave him with different families while she shot, becoming part of the furniture of the beach. In 2019 RRB, a Bristol-based publisher, wanted to publish a book of these photographs called By the Sea, and we at the foundation jumped at the chance to show them at the same time. They offer an empathetic, beautifully observed portrait of beach life.

Sebastián Bruno

It’s such a great story, this. The Abertillery and Ebbw Valleys Dynamic was a community newspaper founded in the South Wales village of Abertillery in May 2015. The two men who set it up, Tony and Julian, did so basically because they wanted to. They had a page-three slot called Sheep of the Week, ran pub reviews and campaigned to stay in the EU in a massively Leave-voting area. It became this huge success locally, while also really struggling financially. It’s currently not being published, but they say they want to bring it back.

Sebastián is actually Clémentine Schneidermann’s boyfriend — I think he just walked into their office one day and asked if they needed a staff photographer. Just as The Dynamic wasn’t like any local paper you’ve seen, so Sebastián’s images aren’t remotely what you’d expect. They’re surreal, funny, a little weird, totally in keeping with the paper. But there’s a lot of empathy here too. We’ve just opened a show of these pictures at the foundation. Sebastián has recreated a mock-up of their offices inside the gallery.

“The Dynamic” is on display at the Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol, until July 2. A book of the project will be published by ICVL Studio

Stephen Gill

One of the things I really like about Stephen is that he’s always searching for new ways of doing things. For a long time he took pictures of Hackney Wick in east London using a plastic box camera that he bought for 50p. Around 2010 he developed this idea of putting things physically in his camera: loading actual objects into the body of the camera, next to the film.

That year he made a project for me in Brighton called Outside In. He would go to the beach and put in small crabs, seaweed, insects, things he found lying there, all sorts, then he’d take pictures. Somehow he figured out a way to load the camera and balance the light so everything combines. You get the background, then these other things on top. The images look amazing; sort of otherworldly, but also beautiful. You could recreate composites in Photoshop, I guess, but they wouldn’t look the same. They remind me a little of cyanotypes of plant life made by 19th-century photographers such as Anna Atkins. But they have this element of chance. You can’t pre-plan work like this. You put the ingredients together and see what happens.

Sticking crabs in a camera is a very Stephen Gill thing to do. He comes up with crazy ideas, but somehow it works.

Rinko Kawauchi

I remember first seeing Rinko’s work in 2002 or 2003. She wasn’t known much outside Japan at that stage. The photobook was called Utatane, published by a tiny press called Little More, and the images were amazing. She had such a distinctive voice — this childlike look at the world. Often you can see the influence of other people, but not with her. When you see someone who’s got a unique vision, it slows you in your tracks. I was really pleased to exhibit her at the Rencontres d’Arles when I was curating it in 2004.

It’s been wonderful to see her reputation grow and grow in the years since. She was recently awarded the Sony Outstanding Contribution to Photography award. Utatane (which translates as siesta, or catnap) is now in its 11th edition.

I’ve met Rinko numerous times now, but I’ve never asked her how she makes the work, or how she gives her pictures that particularly magical quality. I’m not sure you need to know — you can just enjoy the way she looks at the world.

Even though the things she captures are so obvious, in a way — frying eggs, a split melon, a field of flowers, an insect — I realised that I hadn’t seen someone actually take pictures like this before. I still haven’t.

Mohamed Bourouissa

Mohamed grew up in the banlieue just beyond the Boulevard Périphérique, a ring road that runs around Paris, so it’s an area he knows really well. When I first saw these pictures, I thought they were so striking. A lot of the people he was photographing, often young men, were friends of his. He shoots them on location, but he stages and directs them. The pictures are a bit observational, but also like history paintings; the series is simply called Périphérique.

Since the riots in 2005 — which were part of the inspiration for Mohamed’s project — we associate the French suburbs with being tough and difficult. Usually they’re photographed by photojournalists from outside, with all the clichés of the gritty concrete jungle you’d expect. But Mohamed has a natural empathy with the area and his subjects. The pictures have this rather melancholy, downcast feel. There’s an intimacy there that feels very special. He has unique access to this world.

We showed Mohamed’s work in the Brighton Photo Biennial in 2010 and Périphérique has appeared in many different exhibitions since. It won the Deutsche Börse prize in 2020 and appeared as a book last year. It’s been great to see him doing so well.

Martin Parr is the Master of Photography at Photo London, May 10-14 at Somerset House, photolondon.org

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Vancouver artist Ken Lum has won the Scotiabank Photography Award.

In addition to $50,000, the honour nets the photographer a solo exhibition at the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival in 2024 and a published book of his work, to be distributed worldwide.

Prize organizers say Lum uses his art to express his dissatisfaction with the world.

Laura Curtis, Scotiabank’s chief marketing officer, says Lum’s works have “inspired a global audience,” including through permanent public art installations.

Runners-up Sandra Brewster and Chris Currieri, who are both from Toronto, will each receive $10,000.

The annual Scotiabank Photography Award recognizes mid-to-late career artists and was co-founded by Scotiabank and Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky in 2010.

Lum is also the founding editor of the Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, and an officer of the Order of Canada.

This content appears as provided to The Globe by the originating wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.

Palm Springs, California — In the blazing desert heat, an alluring snapshot towers above what seems to be an endless highway.

“It’s such a simple, beautiful photograph, the actual surface of the road disappearing into the landscape,” Desert X artistic director Neville Wakefield told CBS News of the photograph snapped by the late Tyre Nichols, which is one of several on highway billboards, part of the biennial Desert X exhibition in Palm Springs, California.

Nichols, a California native, died in January, three days after being violently beaten by police in Memphis, Tennessee, during a traffic stop.

The 29-year-old’s death sparked nationwide outrage and led to the arrests of five officers on second-degree murder charges. An autopsy report released Thursday ruled his death a homicide caused by blunt force injuries.

An avid photographer, Nichols is the first ever artist whose work has been showcased posthumously in Desert X.

“I was struck by this incredibly sort of reflective, calm, beautiful aspect of his life, that really we haven’t been so familiar with,” Wakefield said.

Nichols’ work serves as a legacy, bridging tragedy to transformation.

“Hopefully, the contrast by the placement of these images by this busy road, where these kinds of stops take place, and the beauty of them levitated above, makes people consider these things and what they can do about them,” Wakefield said.

Wakefield wants people to know not just how Nichols died, but how he lived.

“We all hope for change,” Wakefield said. “I mean, that’s part of what art can do, is change the hearts and minds of people.”

TUSCON, AZ / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2023 / The North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) this week announced that Daniel J. Cox, a nature photographer, photography teacher, and workshop leader, is the recipient of NANPA’s 2023 Environmental Impact Award. The award was established in 2013 and is given every other year to honor a “photographic project addressing an important and urgent regional or global environmental problem.” In addition, the photographer’s work must be “of exceedingly high quality” and includes a “component that creates and distributes high-quality educational material to enhance public awareness, including material created to influence decision makers.” Previous winners of this award have included James Balog, Clay Bolt, Tom Blagden, and Krista Schlyer.

NANPA Awards Committee chair, Dr. Paul Brooke, said Cox “has led the charge to understand the crisis, thereby incorporating organizations and scientists/biologists in the field. The committee recognizes his remarkable vision and passion for nature photography, plus he donates many of his images to the organizations he works with to ensure that the photographs are put to great use.”

This award is in recognition of Cox’s photography and storytelling work in the Arctic, both for Polar Bears International and as director of the Arctic Documentary Project (ADP). Cox brings more than forty years of experience to bear on educating and inspiring viewers about the changes taking place in the Arctic. Changes that will have global impacts. The photos and videos collected in the ADP document environmental transformations in the high latitudes and their effects on the Arctic’s wildlife.

Cox has traveled to all seven continents, been published in numerous prestigious journals, and is a regular contributor to magazines like Outdoor Photographer and National Geographic, where he’s published two cover stories. His work has been exhibited in various galleries, including the Natural History Museum in London and the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming. He also leads photo tours through his company, Natural Exposures.

As North America’s premier nature photography organization, NANPA promotes the art and science of nature photography as a medium of communication, nature appreciation, and environmental protection; provides information, education, inspiration, and opportunity for all persons interested in nature photography; and fosters excellence and ethical conduct in all aspect of our endeavors and especially encourages responsible photography in the wild. Learn more at North American Nature Photographers Association.

Contact: Frank Gallagher
202-290-9166
Interim Marketing and Communications
[email protected] I www.nanpa.org

SOURCE: North American Nature Photographers Association, Inc.

MOSES LAKE — Submissions will be accepted through June 2 for a contest highlighting the architecture of Moses Lake’s boom period. The “Mid-Century Modern of Moses Lake” contest is sponsored by the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center.

Moses Lake experienced explosive growth in the 20 years from 1940 to 1960; the town that had 326 people in 1940 had 11,299 by 1960, according to information from the museum. The World War II and postwar population explosion occurred during the heyday of Mid-Century Modern architecture, and that style left its imprint all over town.

Mid-Century Modern architecture is characterized by big windows, open spaces and the effort to bring the outdoors indoors, the press release said.

Photographers can submit up to three original entries. Photos should feature buildings and signs dating from 1945 to 1969.

Photos should be emailed to the museum, which will print them for display. The entry email address is museum@cityofml.com. If email isn’t feasible, photographers can contact the museum, at 509-765-3830 to make other arrangements, the release said.

Entries should include the photographer’s name and contact information and the photo’s name. The winning entries will go on display at the museum in late summer.

New photography exhibit honors the life of Tyre Nichols – CBS News

A creative who goes by the name Photographer Hal often depicts people in confined spaces. While that might initially sound distressing, Hal’s work points out that this isn’t always the case. His series Flesh Love All was created with a desire to express love in its many forms, from romantic to familial. Only love, he notes, “may have the power to bring all things together, even across race and disparities.” This idea led him to create a space where love is enveloped—literally. The images are of people and their surroundings as vacuum-packed and preserved in plastic.

Shot inside homes and outside of them, the subjects are bound in plastic wrap where all of the air has been sucked away. This distorts their features, mashes their clothing, and often smushes their faces. Most critically, it makes it so they are fused together and cannot independently move. “The things you love will be one,” Hal writes, “and the world will be one. I think that is an ideal form of love.”

Although this might make you feel uneasy—especially if you’re claustrophobic—there is a romantic notion in Hal’s conceptual work. Sometimes we might grow tired or annoyed with the closest people in our lives. After all, they know how to push our buttons. But when faced with the prospect without them, we want to hold them tight and preserve who (and what) we love so dearly. Flesh Love All is an outward display of the deep feelings we keep within.

A creative who goes by the name Photographer Hal often depicts people in confined spaces.

His series Flesh Love All was created with a desire to express love in its many forms, from romantic to familial.

The images are of people and their surroundings as vacuum-packed and preserved in plastic.

“The things you love will be one, and the world will be one. I think that is an ideal form of love.”

Flesh Love All is an outward display of the deep feelings we keep within.

In his series Flesh Love Returns, Hal returns to photographing vacuum-sealed couples.

The series features the couple, encased in plastic, in their most important place. (The surroundings are not in plastic.)

“Two people were packed perfectly in their best place,” Hal writes.

Photographer Hal: Website | Instagram 

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Photographer Hal.

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Daniel Arnold has photographed plenty of exciting events for Vogue, from Afropunk to Inauguration Day, but what could possibly compare to the glitz and glamor of the 2023 Met Gala? 

On Monday, Arnold was on hand to capture all of the goings-on at the museum, swooping in as Doja Cat greeted Jack Harlow, Robert Pattinson shared a laugh with Gwendoline Christie, and Dua Lipa rubbed shoulders with Penélope Cruz. Shot on film, his atmospheric portraits are in turns charming, funny, and deeply intimate; revisit fashion’s biggest night through Arnold’s all-seeing lens below.