I don’t really have anything against AI art, MidJourney, StableDiffusion etc

But it’s pissing me off more than a little bit how so many people post AI art claiming it’s art photography.

I see a ton of it on Flickr. Average and mediocre photographers suddenly from 2022 onward start posting these wonderful images with flawless colorwork and super cool black and whites. Labeled as photography. But then you zoom in and realize… oh right. It’s AI. And this guy is a fraud. Damn.

Again, I have nothing against the thing in itself. But claiming it’s photography is fraudulent. And it’s super scifi nightmarish to have to constantly be on the lookout for what might be real photos and what’s AI. And worst of all, very shortly we won’t be able to tell at all.

What if I really just want to admire photography? Why don’t these platforms do something about this shit?

Anyway… would love to hear your thoughts about that. Cheers.

  • NeriusNerius@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    For me it’s the process of taking the photos that I enjoy, not the publishing it somewhere for (fake) gratification. So I find it weird that some people would do that. Maybe 20 years ago when I had my photo-blog my young mind would think different. But then again I never wanted to cheat in online games, I guess the mentality here is similar.

    Out of curiosity, could you share some of these examples that they try to pass as photography?

    • manjamanga@alien.topOPBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      I fully agree. I don’t get it either.

      Sure, this guy, for example. Now it’s so obvious. But the first time I looked at the photos in my phone, he totally fooled me.

      • NeriusNerius@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        Oh yeah, it’s weird. The images have this “soapy” quality to them. And I don’t know if it’s because you’re immediately sceptical and that takes you out of it, or that they really don’t have as much emotional impact as they should.

        You look at images by Vivian Maier or Antanas Sutkus who had this somewhat similar b&w personal style and they are super emotional. And of course much less “soapy”, much less “perfect”.

        • manjamanga@alien.topOPBEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          I’m very familiar with Maier, Sutkus and countless other great photographers.

          This is different. I’ve always enjoyed browsing through the work of anonymous photographers, you can find extremely talented people with super interesting work. Flickr used to be great for that.

          But this makes that a lot harder. You have to be constantly on watch for this kind of fakery.

      • GloriousDawn@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        That’s the weirdest flickr portfolio. Overprocessed pics going in all directions, nothing for like 12 years, then a bunch of AI stuff. And honestly, they have a more consistent art direction than his earlier real photography.