I got my start as a professional assistant, shadowing photographers, cleaning studios, running light meters, loading film, popping strobes, building sets, lighting scenes, and eventually releasing the shutter myself. Working with clients such as 7-Up, IBC Root Beer, and Nikko Toys, I've worked with every common film format from 35mm to 8×10. Pushing, pulling, cross-processing, Polaroid transfers, painting with light, miniature sets, and darkroom work were all part of my education long before digital photography was a thing.

 

Although my work over the past 20 years has focused primarily on video production and post, I remained active in photography throughout. That passion was fully reignited during the pandemic, and by early 2023, alongside a deep dive into generative AI link , I made a deliberate return to stills, self-publishing a 36-page street photography book link. Drawing from a broad creative history spanning painting, music, filmmaking, photography, and now generative AI, my photographic process has evolved into a hybrid approach that uses GenAI to extend, refine, repair, enhance, and occasionally recontextualize photographic elements.

​

On generative AI:

​

Regarding the increasingly common question of whether AI is threatening to make all traditional image acquisition, including the need for professional photography, obsolete, my answer is yes, but for the majority of the population, probably not anytime soon. Despite popular narratives, current AI capabilities are not a panacea. Obviously, it's able to generate astounding results, but in situations where real-time photography is still required, AI is not even a viable option. Furthermore, generally speaking, AI remains unpredictable, limited in usability, often cost prohibitive, and for all practical purposes, impossible to fully control.

​

Creative editorial may be the first area to embrace AI at its current stage of development, but this remains unproven at scale. Until a handheld AI-enabled camera capable of producing photographs that convincingly blend reality with AI synthesis exists, AI generation and manipulation will remain a separate and somewhat enigmatic process. And for such a camera to be meaningful, precise user control would be essential, something today’s AI tools, which still operate with a high degree of uncertainty, do not yet offer.

​

To be clear, I’m not referring to fully synthetic image generation, where expectations are flexible, nor to narrowly defined AI tools whose value lies in automation. I’m referring to a constrained form of synthography where the human remains integral to the process, and the goal is to preserve the photographic essence of a real person, place, or thing. While AI-assisted tools have already become indispensable in modern photo editing, achieving natural, high-quality results without drawing attention to the process still demands a high degree of creative control, something AI continues to struggle to provide.

​