Beyond the Frame 48/
The giggling kids of Annapurna. What camera do you use? More AI controversies. Nemone Lethbridge, a feminist icon.
Annapurna Kids
I was searching for a specific photograph of the Annapurna mountain range this week. As I flicked through the archive, I was reminded of these two cheeky, giggling kids. I thought the video might amuse you too.
Obviously, I haven’t met most of Beyond the Frame’s readers (12,000 and counting 🙏) and the writer/reader relationship is inevitably one step removed. I don’t know why that seems odd but, anyway, now you’ve seen me—in glorious Technicolor.
I’m mindful that if I share photos or videos of children, it’s my responsibility to occasionally also share a reminder of the best practices we should adopt as photographers. And, indeed, as adults.
It ought to go without saying that there are specific responsibilities a photographer should bear in mind when photographing children. Nevertheless, I’m saying it.
The ethics of photographing children
I wrote briefly about the importance of ethical considerations in Beyond the Frame 8/. Here are some useful links.
For general guidance about journalistic ethics, the Society of Professional Journalists is an excellent place to start. The Society has published a Code of Ethics , available in various formats.
More specifically, the Child Protection Policy provided by Ethical Storytelling incorporates UNICEF’s Principles for Ethical Reporting on Children.
Most of the guidance might appear to be straightforward common sense but I don’t believe one can be over-cautious when it comes to ethical photography, especially where children are concerned.
A question: which camera do you use?
Some time ago I built a digital Kodachrome emulation for Lightroom and Photoshop.
It’s proved to be very popular and I’ve been working on a new and improved version for a while. The existing version supports about 100 camera models. Each one requires building a bespoke profile, which is a time-consuming process.
The new version of my Kodachrome emulation (out soon) will support many more models. I’d like to get an idea of which camera makes and models are most popular with readers of Beyond the Frame.
If you have a few seconds, I’d be grateful if you would let me know which camera you use. I’ve created a very short Google form, which asks: What camera make and model do you use?
Getting a sense of which cameras are most popular will help me prioritise support for those cameras in the new Kodachrome emulation.
Please click the button to let me know what camera you’re using.
Thank you 🙏
AI controversies
Is it just me?
It’s not just me, right?
Some of you must be at least as puzzled as I am.
We’re talking about Magnum photographers. You know, Magnum, the esteemed photo agency of Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa. No, I’m not referring to David Alan Harvey, about whom the less said, the better.
“Photography is truth.” — Jean-Luc Godard
90 Miles—An AI endeavour
Last year we discovered that Michael Christopher Brown had used AI to create “photos” of Cuban refugees fleeing to Florida for his project 90 Miles.
Brown says that he wanted to make images of events that were inaccessible.
He dismissed criticism, “[It] does not affect me, I’ve received a significant amount of criticism for other projects in the past so my skin is fairly thick at this point.”
It might just be me but if I were consistently receiving significant amounts of criticism for my projects, I might be tempted to be a little more self-reflective.
Brown was selling NFT versions of the AI-generated images. You remember NFTs?
Putin’s Dream
More recently another Magnum photographer, Carl De Keyzer, created a project called “Putin’s Dream”, using exclusively AI-generated images.
De Keyzer explained the reason behind his decision to use AI, “At the age of 66 I don’t see me going to Congo for 10 months again or stay in Siberia for eight months.” He added, “It is, of course, not photography, but not something entirely different. I enjoyed working on it very much.”
De Keyzer fed his own ‘real’ images into an AI machine, refining the results to resemble his own style of photography. He says that he tried to get “as close as possible to real images”.
Limited edition copies of Putin’s Dream can be purchased from De Keyzer’s website for €100.
Magnum’s response
Magnum released a statement in response to criticism of the AI projects by two of the agency’s photographers.
In summary, the statement explains that the agency has recently joined Writing With Light, an organisation which states, “Nonfiction photography is a recording of the visible in which the photographer strives to represent actualities (events, people, etc.) in a fair and accurate manner with appropriate context.”
Magnum’s statement goes on to make three points. In summary:
Journalistic photographs must be fair and accurate
AI-generated images should not be presented as authentic photographs
Any deviations from the above should be indicated with a “caption, credit, or appropriate icon.”
What on earth is an “appropriate icon”? (Suggestions on a postcard to Magnum Photo Agency, London, England, please.)
The Book of Veles
The two AI projects above don’t appear in Magnum’s archives. However, Jonas Bendiksen’s project “The Book of Veles”—which employed 3D rendering rather than AI— does.
Jonas, a photographer whose authentic photographs I have greatly admired, used 3D imaging technology to insert fake avatars into genuine photographs.
“I didn’t have to spend all my time trying to get access to any people. I just photographed empty spaces… [then] placed my avatars into the scene, with emotions, poses and lighting that matched the original scene.” — Jonas Bendiksen
Jonas wanted to see if he could intentionally fool the photographic community. He succeeded. A book of the photographs was published and a screening of his project was displayed at Visa Pour l’image Festival of Photojournalism in Perpignan, without anybody questioning the veracity of his pictures.
“Bendiksen waited for people to question the work. No one did, there were likes, thumbs up and heart emojis. His fellow Magnum photographers were fooled. Some who bought the book applauded the important story he was telling.” — Amateur Photographer magazine
What does it all mean?
I’ll be honest, I’m failing to see an upside to any of this fakery.
Michael Christopher Brown wasn’t able to photograph Cuban refugees for real, so he used AI to create imagined scenes. Carl De Keyzer thinks he’s too old to visit the Congo and didn’t want to go back to Russia so he also resorted to generating fake images.
I’m not unsympathetic to their frustrations. I’m probably too old to paddle up the Congo too and I’m not inclined to visit Russia right now, but those are the facts of life, disappointing though they might be. I don’t see how spending time making fake images benefits anybody, unless they’re selling NFTs or limited edition books.
As for Jonas Bendiksen’s cunning wheeze, I think he’s overlooked a simple truth. His book was published and his project was screened at Perpignan precisely because he had previously built a reputation as a Magnum photographer.
An established photojournalist faking images and then shouting, “Aha! I fooled you all” doesn’t actually prove anything that we don’t already know.
If, for example, I go to a doctor complaining of a sore throat and the doctor prescribes throat lozenges, I trust the lozenges are likely to help. If I return to the surgery a week later, my throat still sore, and the doctor leaps from their chair shouting, “Aha! I fooled you. Those aren’t throat lozenges, they’re laxatives!” am I supposed to feel grateful at being educated? Should I have asked to see the doctor’s medical certificate before taking the prescription?
In that imagined scenario, I might have angrily responded, “No sh!t, Sherlock” but, you know, the whole laxative thing…
I would probably have asked the doctor two questions:
What, exactly, were you hoping to prove?
Where is the nearest loo?
My point, laboured though it has become, is that society only functions where trust exists and we all understand that.
How many times have I jumped into a taxi without asking to see the driver’s licence and insurance? How many restaurant meals have I eaten without first asking when the chef last washed their hands?
Every day we do dozens of things that demand our trust. Without it, we’d never go anywhere or do anything. That seems so self-evident that I question why anybody would feel the need to point it out.
When a respected photojournalist, a Magnum photographer no less, shouts “Gotcha!” because people didn’t ask if his images were authentic, he hasn’t taught us anything—other than perhaps we ought not to trust Jonas Bendiksen in future. And that makes me sad.
“All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.” — Richard Avedon
Conclusion?
I don’t know. I’m open to hearing more positive interpretations. My conclusion is that Magnum, an organisation I have admired for many years, is currently paying lip-service to the principle of authenticity in journalistic photography. They say they are going to indicate fake images with “an appropriate icon” although there’s no evidence that they’ve done that so far.
Bendiksen’s book is available in the Magnum online shop. There’s a lengthy description of the work. At no point is it mentioned that the images in the book were faked. I can’t even see the elusive “appropriate icon”.
The only conclusions I’m able to draw are depressing. It’s started with photographers creating AI images because reaching the locations and events they want to depict is impossible. Pretty soon, the word “impossible” in that sentence will be replaced with “inconvenient”.
Things change. It’s progress. These are the things I tell myself in an attempt to avoid sounding like a miserable old git who resents having to face the future.
Truly, I’m not a miserable old git. Not all the time. I’m excited about the future. And I’m a sucker for technology. AI fascinates me. However, I’m starting to wonder if you took away my computer, my smart phone, and my digital cameras and replaced them with a film camera, a notebook and a pencil, I might not be secretly relieved.
Thoughts? Have I misunderstood something? Am I a miserable old git in denial? The comments are open. Be gentle.
Nemone Lethbridge
And finally, a refreshing—and unarguably authentic—antidote.
The BBC’s long-running radio programme, Desert Island Discs, is a favourite of mine. I wrote about it in Beyond the Frame 27/ and included a list of photographers who have appeared on the show.
The premise of Desert Island Discs, where guests are invited to select eight music tracks to reflect their life story, is perfectly suited for prompting guests to speak openly about their lives.
A recent Desert Island Discs castaway was Nemone Lethbridge.
By any measure, barrister and playwright Nemone Lethbridge has led—is leading—an extraordinary life. Now aged 92, she continues to work on pro-bono cases.
Nemone’s extraordinary life
Aged 9, Nemone was sent to a boarding school in Somerset. It was not a happy time.
“I was miserable at that school. Now I can say—though I never said at the time—the headmaster was a paedophile, but I never told anybody.”
She describes the subsequent feelings of anger and shame she experienced with an uncanny absence of self-pity.
Her father was Chief of Intelligence for the British Army of the Rhine at the end of World War II. He took 14 year-old Nemone and her brother Peter to Berlin, where they visited the underground Führerbunker, the place where Hitler and Goebbels spent their final days.
Nemone says that the childhood abuse she suffered probably fuelled a keen sense of injustice, which led her to a career in the legal profession.
When Nemone became a criminal barrister in 1956, the men in her chambers were so aghast at the arrival of a woman, they prohibited her from using the office toilets. For years she had to visit a café down the street whilst her male colleagues secured the office toilet with a lock, for which they were all given keys.
She represented the notorious Kray twins and “Mad Axeman” Frank Mitchell in several court cases.
She married a convicted murderer—whose innocence she is still fighting to prove—and, consequently, was forced to leave her law career.
She became a successful playwright and poet and, some years later, returned to the law. She set up Our Lady of Good Counsel Law Centre in response to the British government’s scathing cuts to Legal Aid.
In her Desert Island Discs interview, Nemone speaks about her experiences of post-natal depression and admits that, even at 92 years of age, she is still wary of things which might trigger feelings of depression, “I have to be very careful about what I read. I don’t dare read Thomas Hardy. I wouldn’t even now open ‘Tess’ or ‘Jude the Obscure’.”
In an especially moving part of the interview, Nemone explains that she has chosen Gracie Fields’ version of September Song as one of her Desert Island Discs because “it was a very important episode in my life.” Yet it is a song that she daren’t listen to because it has the power to push her into a deep depression.
There are so many memorable Desert Island Discs interviews. Nemone Lethbridge, feminist icon, has given one of the finest.
I hope you might find the time to listen to it. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.
Right, that’s your lot for now. Thank you to those kind readers who wished me luck with my university Arts course.
I’ve been through the two-week induction, completed several “creative challenges”, designed to familiarise students with the labyrinthine mechanics of submitting work for assessment, and attended my first “drop in” meeting with a tutor. It’s somewhat strange to be on the student’s side of the desk but I’m hopeful that I’ll soon get into the swing of student life.
If you have a moment, please don’t forget to let me know what camera you’re using.
Until next time, go well.
Directory: Beyond the Frame newsletter archive.
Resources: Recommended books, films, gear, media etc.
Beyond the Frame 47/
Rediscovering a spark of childlike enthusiasm and honouring the life and work of photojournalist Camille Lepage.
I totale agree with your point of view. I also like the technical evolution but AI pictures made by PC and “sold” for a real picture isn’t a photo. It can be something else like “digital art” or “picture creation”, but not using the word “photo” because it has nothing to do with photography.
I find AI imagery to be the b*st*rd child of science and technology. But then, I remind myself, I'm old. I continue to care about the power of photographic imagery. I detest the verbal and 'print' deceptions we are witnessing in this era of truth and democracy trashing. In a positive vein let AI 'art' be marketed as such for those who wish to have it. It's not photography. Perhaps a definition of photography with it's own Appellation d'origine contrôlée?
Your video - fab, the resulting images likewise. Laughing and connection without shared language - brill.