Hear the Human Voice
Communication in the Age of Artificial Noise
by Marwan El Mozayen / SilvergrainClassics
Image created by AI: Der Tod des Internet – A film from Mario Sixtus
(Born on Facebook, Shrimp Jesus is a new viral phenomenon featuring AI-generated images of Jesus Christ)
Creating With My Own Hands, Senses, And Judgment
In this article, I don’t want to talk about a lens, or film grain, or a developer that creates beautiful gray tones, or even how to get the best light on a model’s face.
I love all of that, of course. But recently I have started to feel a real sense of fear when considering photography. I associate communication and human interaction with it; it’s the part I love, and where I also make many mistakes. I feel like it is in danger.
But before we go further, a small aside – I’m glad you found this article. Or, rather, that a search engine showed it to you. That isn’t something we can take for granted.
I am not in panic mode about new technology or artificial intelligence, but there are things we as analog photographers (and not only we) need to talk about in this context. We do not only consume images; we create them.
When I create, I want to do it myself, with my own hands, senses, and judgment. Of course, I use tools, but they should remain tools and not turn into a digital version of Goethe’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
Filmmaker Mario Sixtus recently described the flood of low-quality AI content as “slop” in his documentary “AI: Death of the Internet.” The internet is now overwhelmed with auto-written books, recycled articles, and algorithmic nonsense that pretends to have meaning but does not. Google increasingly struggles to distinguish truth from imitation. This flood does not simply fill space, either. It buries what was once there: genuine human thought, care, and creativity.
The Analog Way of Seeing
As analog photographers, we are used to working slowly and intentionally. We expose, develop, and print. Every mistake teaches us something. And when we talk about film stocks, chemicals, or papers, it is not about trends but about a real physical connection to a tool.
Our community communicates through social media. But it also connects in a human way through workshops, forums, blogs, and shared experiences. Words and images have meaning because they come from people who actually did the work.
The Comfort of Convenience
I use AI myself. It is genuinely useful for making text summaries or doing the main work of translating from one language to another. But its dark side should never be ignored. AI is built on the in-depth knowledge and creative work of countless people—of all of us who don’t live completely off the grid. It absorbs everything, mixes it together, and presents it statistically rather than creatively. It looks like originality, but it is only an echo.
I also find it increasingly annoying to find my social media flooded with AI-generated videos. They may seem funny at first glance, but they change the way we perceive reality, and they come at a high price. We lose human connection, and that connection is what we are made for. We want to meet, to interact, to argue, to agree or disagree, and we want to feel something real.
The alternative is what a drug offers. It feels good at first, it imitates genuine emotions, but in the end, it steals your soul.
Fighting Fatalism
Many weary voices are saying that AI is a fact; in a few years it will outperform humans and become more intelligent than we are, and we must accept it in all its uses or become irrelevant. I can only say that this is a cheap argument, and not even a new one. The same claim was made in the 1950s when computers first entered our lives.
I do not believe we should quietly accept the situation as AI is stealthily put in place of human creativity to save costs. The true cost would be the loss of great thinking and creative masterworks.
How Can We Get Out of This?
Perhaps by returning to what we have always done: connecting through real experiences. We connect at workshops, exhibitions, darkrooms, and photo walks, where people still look each other in the eye and talk about light and emotion.
At SilvergrainClassics, we create a print magazine, and we know what it means to create something new again and again. We speak with creative people who want to share their human experiences, and we pass on that interaction through a physical medium. Once produced, a printed article cannot be edited or erased. If a mistake occurs, you can write a correction in the next issue, but it remains a direct and human exchange.
We keep our analog communication not because we reject progress, but because we still believe in the value of human presence. True creativity is not automation. For photographers, it is that imperfect, deeply human moment when you press the shutter and truly mean it.
These online articles are free – we see it as our contribution to the film photography community. You can support this content by subscribing to our awesome print magazine about the entire world of analog photography!
https://shop.silvergrainclassics.com/subscriptions/
