After Boris Eldagsen and I replied to Joan Fontcuberta’s musings on “algorithmic photography” with an article published by PetaPixel, Gregory Chatonsky replied to us with a theory that expands on latent space. Now it’s our turn again. Gloves are off, but it’s all in good fun.

PetaPixel just published an essay co-authored by Boris Eldagsen and me, which should be an interesting read beyond the photographic community, with implications for anybody who consumes images. The article is a critique of Joan Fontcuberta’s “algorithmic photography,” presented in his latest book. Since we are mentioned in it, Boris and I saw it necessary to respond to an artist and intellectual who theorizes that we're past the distinction between photography and AI imagery.

In the public arena, photography is a long-standing winner of truth-telling contests, beating older forms of visual representation that aim to approximate reality with brushstrokes, chisel-chipping or textile-loops. The camera as a tool establishes a more direct relationship with the subject, at least from an optical point of view. That much is obvious.

At the rate polarization is driving us apart these days, (re)union might end up out of reach sometime soon. As the planet is heating—a POLARizing issue of ALL CAPS magnitude and humanity’s most pressing challenge—it feels like we’re all heating with it: families redraw the Thanksgiving table’s seating chart according to vaccine schedules while politicians on TV oscillate between shouting and screaming as the aisle widens into an chasm.

While the public discourse around the ICE killing of Minnesota woman Renee Good has all the right ingredients for a hot stew of opinions—spicy camera angles, juicy legislation, and a good pinch of political finger-pointing—it is lacking a solid portion of clear-cut common sense. Something that isn’t mush. Something we can all agree on.