AI fabrication raises existential questions about photography’s reality | Expert Views

“What the Photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once: The Photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially…”

French semiotician Roland Barthes’ reflection in his book Camera Lucida encapsulates the essence of photography: It captures a fleeting moment forever fixed in its unique temporal and spatial context, inherently incapable of being replicated. In other words, a photograph is a fixed representation of a reality that can never be experienced in exactly the same way again.

But hold onto your lenses! This very notion of photographic authenticity is getting a serious shake-up with the rise of generative AI,