Description
“A single AI image of the Pope in a designer puffer jacket didn’t just go viral — it revealed something worse…” A single AI image of the Pope in a designer puffer jacket didn’t just go viral — it exposed how quickly authenticity can collapse when the internet is flooded with convincing fakes. In the age of AI photography , “seeing” isn’t believing anymore. It’s step one of verification . In Part 1 of this two-part series, Bad Photographers traces the long history of image manipulation — from spirit photography and staged “fairies,” to propaganda erasures and Photoshop — and explains why today’s synthetic media is fundamentally different. This isn’t only editing reality. It’s manufacturing photo, video, and audio from scratch, at scale — powering deepfakes , identity hijacking, and misinformation / disinformation that can outrun corrections. We break down what this means for photojournalism , public trust, and the role of images as credibility / evidence — because when audiences assume everything could be fake, the real danger isn’t that we can’t spot the lie. It’s that we stop trusting the truth. Part 2 explores what comes next: provenance , standards, and the tools (and ethics) required to rebuild trust after the collapse. Chapters 00:00 The Evolution of Photography and Trust 04:24 Historical Deceptions in Photography 06:06 The Impact of AI on Visual Truth 07:57 The Consequences of Misinformation 10:13 The Collapse of Trust in Imagery 11:13 The Future of Visual Media 15:59 The Ethical Dilemmas of AI 18:14 The Role of Photography in Society 20:02 The Fight for Authenticity 21:54 The Personal Impact of Manipulated Images 23:18 The Call to Action for Change Key Reference Links Durham, M. G. “‘Napalm Girl’ at 50: The story of the Vietnam War’s defining photo.” 2023. URL: https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/download/20175/4204 IJOC “The Terror of War (Napalm Girl) Photographed by Nick Ut.” Yale University Press. 2021. URL: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2021/09/20/napalm-girl/ Yale University Press Maizland, L. “Photographers’ Moral Responsibility to Document Injustice in … (Kevin Carter case).” 2022. URL: https://edspace.american.edu/atrium/wp-content/uploads/sites/1901/2022/05/Maizland-Lindsay.pdf EdSpace “The Vulture and the Little Girl” (Kevin Carter photograph). Wikipedia entry. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vulture_and_the_Little_Girl Wikipedia Al-Jazeera Institute. “Ethical Dilemmas of Photo Editing in Media.” March 26, 2024. URL: https://institute.aljazeera.net/en/ajr/article/2614 Al Jazeera Institute Reuters. “Reuters toughens rules after altered photo affair.” August 9 2007. URL: https://www.reuters.com/article/economy/reuters-toughens-rules-after-altered-photo-affair-idUSL18678707/ Reuters Adobe Blog. “Insights from Reuters on Capturing Images People Can Trust.” June 23 2017. URL: https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2017/06/23/insights-from-reuters-on-capturing-images-people-can-trust.html Adobe Blog Quill Magazine. “Photo Unrealism: Doctoring pics is becoming easier — and harder to detect.” June 20 2024. URL: https://www.quillmag.com/2024/06/20/photo-unrealism-doctoring-pics-is-becoming-easier-and-harder-to-detect/ Quill Faculty at Georgia Tech. “Photo Tampering Throughout History.” URL: https://faculty.cc.gatech.edu/~beki/cs4001/history.pdf Georgia Tech Faculty Aesthetic Investigations. “The Atrocity of Representing Atrocity: Watching Kevin Carter’s Photograph.” 2015. URL: https://aestheticinvestigations.eu/article/download/12001/13563 Aesthetic Investigations Arielle Lorre calls out AI-generated fake beauty ad: https://www.indy100.com/tiktok/ai-video-trending-arielle-lore-skincare-skaind-lawsuit WIRED: “Companies Are Stealing Influencers’ Faces”: https://www.wired.com/story/youtube-instagram-influencers-stolen-faces/