The Phoblographer has been really big on authenticity since the start. As we’ve demonstrated in several of our interviews, we work with photographers to prove that their images are truly made by them. Indeed, we put human photography first and push for things to be as authentic as possible. In our reviews, we even have sections where we clearly state what images have been edited and which are straight out of the camera. With all this in mind, the Phoblographer is now incredibly hyped to state that we’re one of the latest members of the Content Authenticity Initiative first started by Adobe.
We’re going to pull a quote from their website where they say it best:
The Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) is a group working together to fight misinformation and add a layer of tamper-evident provenance to all types of digital content, starting with photos, video, and documents. We’re creating a solution for digital content provenance through open-source development, cross-industry collaboration, and interoperability of tools. Our work is fully compliant with the technical specifications released by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA).
In the near future, we’ll be pondering on how we’re going to use their tools provided by the Content Authenticity Initiative to push these standards for photographers and photography first. We’ll announce these as time goes on.
We’ve worked to be as transparent with our readers as we possibly can. And I’d argue that we’re the most transparent of any American Photo publication, and far more so than social media influencers and Youtubers. Here at the Phoblographer, we put photographers first. We don’t label you as content creators, and instead we focus on the idea of images and fighting misinformation. It’s one of the reasons why sometimes, when looking at award-winning images, we’ll peek at the EXIF data. We’ve also spoken with various photographers about their work, and to provide us with proof that they’re not using AI to make the images.
The idea of putting the moral high ground first is earning us big things. Talking about the manufacturers over and over again doesn’t address the bigger issues in photography. Instead, that focuses on consumerism. This year, we returned to our roots of focusing on art first with the aim of trying to help photographers become better artists in an authentic way.
And we’re going to continue to do so.