The Synthetic Eye: Photography Transformed in the Age of AI

by Fred Ritchin

A revelatory glimpse into the future of photography, one where the very nature of how images are created is fundamentally transformed by artificial intelligence. An invaluable roadmap in a new world. The revolution caused by artificial intelligence in terms of what a photograph can and cannot do is profound. This book looks at photography’s strengths, what it has meant for individuals and for society, its massive transformations caused by a variety of factors in the digital age, and the newer possibilities for image making. These include old and new media, with an emphasis on synthetic imaging as both a positive and terrifying development. In 1840, a year after photography’s invention, the painter Paul Delaroche exclaimed, “From now on, painting is dead.” Photography was quicker and cheaper as a representational medium and more realistic, its invention also liberated painters to become much more adventurous, embracing approaches that included impressionism, cubism, minimalism, and abstract expressionism. So too photographers are being challenged today. Many have responded with new strategies, but more innovation is needed. Can photographers be as radically expansive and revolutionary as painters were? Can they preserve or even expand the photograph’s role in society as a credible witness? Can the photographic image morph into forms previously unimagined? The Synthetic Eye is about this transformative revolution. How can synthetic imagery be utilized to amplify our understanding of ourselves and our worlds? Can an alternative photography deepen and expand the medium’s previous reach? What are the pitfalls? How will our senses of the real, the possible, and the actual be affected? 120 color illustrations

Genres: Photography, Artificial Intelligence

240 pages, Paperback

Published March 25, 2025

Reviews

[Andrew H · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a highly important book that looks at major issues surrounding AI and photographic truth. The book is not concerned with what AI can do -- its dubious creativity --but focuses on how synthetic imagery is building a less truthful world. A key example would be a survey of AI imagery on war. Adobe stock contains Palestine images that are AI "fakes" and many more that are not identified as AI creations. This is an intelligent and alarming book that studies what is here, not what is to come, and what is here is deeply disturbing,

[Cheryl]

More serious and heavy than the source from which I learned about it implied. Nonetheless, I carefully skimmed, and was impressed, not only with the discussion of what is real, what is AI, and how to understand the difference, and when does it matter... but also with the exploration of what "nonfiction photography" is still capable of accomplishing. Recommended to anyone at all curious.

"When smoke from wildfires across the United States turned the skies strangely orange, for example, cellphone cameras were incapable of acknowledging the transformation and showed them as gray."

Blue Skies project by Anton Custer's filmed 1078 Nazi concentration camps. I didn't know there were anywhere near that many, but when we think about it, Of course there had to be lots. Not just the famous ones like Auschwitz.

"The Twitter campaign #IfTheyGunnedMeDown emerged after the fatal 2014 police shooting of unarmed 18 year old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. It was designed to help young African Americans draw attention to the tendency of media outlets to use racist stereotypes when describing Black people who are killed in similar circumstances. They shared the images of themselves that they thought such outlets would use - and juxtaposed to them with more everyday photographs, such as them performing in a school band or graduating, that they hoped would be used to represent them if they were gunned down."

Issa Touma - Women We Have Not Lost Yet - photographed in Aleppo in 2015. One subject, 21 year old Dima explains, "Since the war started, I've said goodbye to so many people. Ive stopped meeting people so I wouldn't have to say goodbye anymore. I've lost any sense of being alive. I'm staying in Aleppo to finish my studies, and every night I count the bombs exploding around my house until I fall asleep."

August 2025

[Rachel Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was required reading for a seminar I’m taking part in a few weeks. I wouldn’t have picked it up if not for my participation in the seminar, but I’m glad i did. The author presents a unique perspective on this topic, and engaged with the conversation respectfully. I am and will always be vehemently upset at the rate which AI has become inescapable in our modern day, but this book gave me a broader way to think about it.

[Audge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting dive into synthetic images; not all of which are AI-generated. This got me thinking about media, the purpose of photography, and how images affect society. I wished the pictures referenced in the book were located closer to the text in which they were referenced.