We’ve all heard it before, “AI is going to replace photography.” Or “AI is coming for creative jobs.” I’ve even come across the public asking, “Why should I pay a photographer when I can do it with AI?” All of these hyperbolic statements are a sign of the state of photography today, but we’re not necessarily in it alone. Today, VSCO announced the launch of their U.S. campaign boldly stating, “Photography isn’t dying. It’s never mattered more.”
VSCO’s Renewed Commitment to Human Photographers
VSCO’s proposition is straightforward – AI can never replace the human experience. As VSCO’s CEO, Eric Wittman writes:
We’ve all heard it: “Photography is dying.”
Social platforms are burying your best work in an endless reel of trends. Traditional tools are telling you to skip the photoshoot. Brands are replacing real photos with generated ones. And the doubting voices in the room are telling you to quit.
We are not one of those voices. We champion photographers. We always have and always will.
When I first began my professional journey as a photographer, social media – specifically Twitter and Instagram – were a vital part of getting my work to potential clients. Nearly a decade since these first launch, the social media landscape has changed, and AI slop has made things worse still. Putting their money where their mouth is, VSCO co-created the campaign with two photographers from the VSCO community – Ivana Cajina and Jared Thomas Tapy. Both add their individual style and sense of world-building to the visuals that are a part of the campaign that will be featured across television, social media, and as the headlining sponsor of this year’s Photoville photography festival in NYC.
At the risk of sounding too cynical, VSCO’s answer, of course, is to promote its suite of tools including their community feed. Along with the campaign announcement, VSCO is also announcing several product updates including removing the paywall for Sites, the addition of video uploads to Galleries, and the ability to batch edit up to 100 images using their mobile app.
Removing the Barriers to Owning Your Feed
The single, most important piece of news from today’s VSCO announcement is undoubtedly bringing their feature, Sites, to the masses. Thinking back on my own professional photography journey, the biggest hurdle that I had to overcome was building a legitimate portfolio site – I didn’t have the skills needed to build a good website, and I didn’t have the cash to pay for one. Sites make building a professional looking portfolio easy and seamlessly lets you bring over your work from the VSCO Studio, allowing you to quickly pool your best images and publish them on your own site – no algorithms or slop to contend with. Additionally, we’ve long been pressing VSCO about the importance of custom URLs to Sites, and we finally have confirmation that it is in the works; easily the secret sauce that make your VSCO account a true hub for creative work.
At the end of the day, I’m genuinely excited to see VSCO stand on business and stand with photographers, not just in an open letter but by hiring talent from within their community. It’s a reminder to the photography world that bigger than the tools is our community – let’s take the same stand that VSCO has and continue to highlight and promote human-made work made for humans.