The current discussions about whether AI generated images are actually art are nothing new. Every time there is an evolution in some technology or process related to art, humans invested in the status quo argue that the "new thing" will destroy the "old thing." Photography has gone through this several times, almost from the very start.
In the late 1800s a group of photographers sought to distinguish photography as a serious art form and not just a recording medium. This movement was known as Pictorialism. The effects were varied but generally typified by painterly looks. Images were often manipulated in unique ways, moving beyond composition and embracing process as part of the craft.
This series is a brief homage to this early schism between old and new, using modern digital tools to recreate some of the esthetic results of Stieglitz, Steichen, and Cameron. Here, I've used Leonard Misonne, a Belgian photographer closely associated with the movement, as a late muse of sorts, embracing his use of texture and soft focus to move from recording to art.
These images are part of an article in Photoshop User magazine (KelbyOne) for my column, Photoshop Proving Ground (August 2023). All photographs originally copyright Scott Valentine, 2023.
