IS AI the end of photography

Every major shift in photography has arrived with a sense of dread. Colour was supposed to destroy the purity of black and white. Digital cameras were expected to erase the craft of film. Smartphones were predicted to flatten the field entirely. Yet each time, photography did not die. It adapted, sharpened, and redefined what mattered.

AI is the next disruption, but it feels different because it challenges the act of making an image itself. When a machine can create a convincing picture in seconds, what becomes of the photographer?

The answer lies in what AI cannot do.

AI can imitate styles, simulate light, and fabricate scenes, but it cannot stand in a place and witness a moment. It cannot feel the cold before dawn, wait for the tide to shift, or sense the emotional weight of a landscape. It cannot choose what matters. It cannot interpret the world through a lifetime of memory, experience, and presence.

Photography has never been defined by the ability to produce an image. It has always been defined by the ability to see.

If anything, AI pushes photography back to its essence: intention, authorship, and the irreplaceable human experience behind the lens. In a world filled with synthetic images, the value of a photograph rooted in lived reality may become stronger, not weaker.

So no, AI is not the end of photography. It is the end of photography as a purely technical craft and the beginning of photography as a deeper, more intentional act of seeing.

What are your thoughts?