The Synthetic Eye : Photography Transformed in the Age of AI

by Ritchin, Fred

Photography & photographs

Published 27/02/2025 by Thames & Hudson Ltd in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 240 pages, 88 Illustrations, colour

An essential investigation into the murky ethics of AI, one that calls into question the future of photography.

Artificial Intelligence is driving a fourth industrial revolution and, as The Synthetic Eye shows, the centre will not hold.

How can we believe or trust the images we are being shown? What role do photographers, the media and technology companies have in upholding the authenticity of photographs? Can synthetic imagery be utilized to enhance our understanding of our world?

A revelatory roadmap of today’s image universe, The Synthetic Eye explores how Artificial Intelligence has fundamentally transformed our sense of the real, the possible and the actual. Arranged into seven distinct chapters, it interrogates AI’s engagement with history, how it has changed our understanding of reality, and the positive opportunities and dystopian scenarios that lurk beneath the surface of artificially generated images.