Writing with Light
New Labeling Standards for Visual Journalism
Writing with light, the original meaning of photography, is a movement by visual journalists and documentary photographers to clearly differentiate their photographs from other images that appear to be photorealistic but are highly manipulated or generated by artificial intelligence systems.
The icon
placed next to the photographer’s name in the credit, indicates to readers that the photographer upholds the Statement of Principles, striving for fair and accurate reporting of what they experience while acknowledging the subjectivity inherent in their work.
Differentiating between fact and fiction
has never been more important.
Just as a writer is an author whose credibility is based upon their skills and integrity as a professional, so too the credibility of a “writer with light,” the author-photographer, is dependent upon their own skills and integrity as interpreters of people, issues, and events, not solely upon the fidelity of the camera as a recording device. And just as a writer can quote what someone says, so too photographs can be considered as a quotation from appearances presented within the photograph’s frame. In both cases adequate context needs to be provided for the reader to better understand what is being said or seen, while in neither case can quotations, of words or image, be used that mislead.
If photography is to continue to function as a reliable witness, capable of provoking societal debates and interventions for those in need, differentiating between fact and fiction has never been more important.
Testimonials
A camera is an ethical tool which helps guarantee credibility because the photographer is an observer. AI images are just numbers in a box that have no conscience and no morality. But they look like a photographer “took them”. Synthetic images are not any more real than fiction is fact.
I use the language of images, along with that of words, to document the world I’ve had the privilege to enter and participate in through my questions, my observations and my camera. As an honest photojournalist, I don’t extrapolate or lie with words, and I don’t do that with images, either.
Today, artificial intelligence has given us the possibility to synthetise ‘photographic truth’ relying on (post) photographic data stretching out from images formerly known as ‘straight’ to ‘improved’ and now also – and increasingly – synthetic. All stored in the ‘cloud’, pretending to be collective memory while in reality shaped by commercially operated algorithms: systems locked up in black boxes virtually no one has access to.
As a documentary photographer who lives in a country where the truth is a battlefield I fear that manipulation of everything will become so much more easier with AI that we won’t be able to hold those in power accountable for their actions.
As documentary image makers and as humans, we feel emotions. This is crucial for our images to transcend the algorithms. Artificial intelligence is far away from feeling.
No one should be able to to tell the story of who you are better than you. I believe that one of the downfalls of AI is its ability to further hijack and/or silence the voices of marginalized individuals whose stories have historically been told for them instead of by them.
This new and dangerous world of digital distortion and AI will crush our powerful witness in documentary photography and the truth that so many of us have strived to observe through our photographs.
Still and moving images purporting to be photographic or camera-led eyewitness proof of actual unfolding news events or of non-fiction documentary issues-—whether deployed in newspapers, on TV stations, or on social media—must remain contextualized and easily distinguishable from images which are fabricated by AI.
In order to safeguard the long-term credibility of the photographic record there needs to be a robust industry-wide set of standards.
Our mission as photojournalists is to show the world as we experience it and see it. We strive to honestly represent the people we meet and the places we visit in our photos. Artificial intelligence cannot do this.
I became a photojournalist because I believed that photos and moving images I saw in newspapers and on TV stations showed me the world as I had not seen it. I continue to make what we once called “straight photos”—no edits or changes of images that added, removed, or distorted content in the frame— because I believe in their value and their power.
Organizations and Individuals In Agreement
Organizations
Name of Partner & Logo & Link
Partner
Name of Partner & Logo & Link
Partner
Name of Partner & Logo & Link
Partner
Name of Partner & Logo & Link
Partner
Name of Partner & Logo & Link
Partner
Name of Partner & Logo & Link
Partner
Name of Partner & Logo & Link
Partner
Name of Partner & Logo & Link
Partner