AI and the complexity of Black photographic representation and critical analysis

Sobers, Shawn; Edwards, Yuko

Abstract

In this chapter artist Yuko Edwards and academic Shawn Sobers discuss the complex dynamics of AI image making, with regards both the problems and opportunities in the cultural politics of Black and African heritage representation. The significant challenges within the realm of AI image making applications are discussed, including ethics, privileging of image depiction over lived experience, Black erasure, and the new ‘minstrelism’ of white creators selling Black and African themed aesthetics. They also discuss how Black creatives have been using AI as an apparent liberatory method for filling a cultural need, a gap that photography has been slow to fill, and how it has brought new creatives and audiences to images that look like photography, and what the response has been when the AI process has been revealed. Both authors have slightly different emphasis on this issue, with Edwards being slightly more skeptical, while Sobers is cautious while seeing some benefits in AI image making processes and use. This chapter sees them negotiate their differences, and accepting that AI is now here to stay, asking what the possible future of AI images is, and explore the potential impacts of this tension for both Black creatives and audiences alike.

Citation

Sobers, S., & Edwards, Y. (in press). AI and the complexity of Black photographic representation and critical analysis. In AI and Photography. Bristol: Royal Photographic Society

• Acceptance Date: Feb 9, 2024
• Deposit Date: Feb 9, 2024
• Book Title: AI and Photography
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11678839