I'm a little tired of the arguments about whether AI images can be beautiful or emotionally moving, as they clearly can.

So let us talk about photography's unique relationship with reality.

A photograph is caused by light reflected from a real person, a real place or genuine moment. Even if it's staged or manipulated, it still begins with something that actually existed in front of the camera.

AI images just don't have that connection. They can convincingly imitate the look of photography, but they don't record an actual event.

That's a majour distinction. Photography isn't just a way of making pictures... it's a way of preserving memory and history.

I'm sure a few photographers reading this would argue that its value lies as much in the encounter with the world as in the final image. The walk, the waiting, the chance meeting, the changing light. All of it feeds into the decisive moment and shapes the photograph in ways that can't be generated from a prompt.

AI may become a powerful creative medium in its own right. But rather than replacing or extending photography, I think it occupies a different space.

Photography remains one of the few media that lets us say, with confidence, "I was there and this happened."

And I love it for that.