That distinction matters, especially at a time when photographers are increasingly divided on whether AI belongs in the medium at all. For some, AI represents the natural evolution of photography, no different than the move from film to digital or from darkrooms to modern editing software. For others, it crosses a line, threatening the authenticity and craftsmanship that define photography.
Personally, I sit somewhere in the middle.
For me, photography is still about being there—seeing the moment, reacting to it, and pressing the shutter. AI did not create these images. It did not invent the turkeys, the road, or the conditions of that winter day. It simply helped refine how some of those moments are presented. Once AI begins adding skies, animals, or elements that never existed, the work stops being photography and becomes something else entirely. That doesn’t make it wrong—but it does make honesty and transparency essential.
Viewed together, these four photographs show the same truth through slightly different treatments. They are variations of one real encounter, shaped by tools old and new, but rooted in the same moment in time. The heart of the work remains untouched.
In the end, AI is just another tool. Whether it belongs in photography depends entirely on how it is used. When it supports the image without replacing reality, it can have a place. When it replaces the moment itself, it becomes something different. These four photographs live firmly on the side of witnessing, not inventing—and that distinction matters.
