Aperture & Algorithm (July 2026)
Welcome to the first issue of Aperture & Algorithm. When ChatGPT arrived in late 2022, I felt the ground shift: the promise and the peril at once; the doors AI might open for image-makers, and those it might quietly close. Photography sits at the sharp end of that change. Our images can now be conjured from a sentence, our styles cloned, our long-held proof of "I was there" unsettled. Ignoring it felt irresponsible; panicking about it, equally so. So in 2024 I began sharing what I was learning through TheDayAfterAI (thedayafterai.com), explaining, in plain language, how this technology is reshaping ordinary life for better and worse. This digest is the next step: a monthly, magazine-style round-up, made by a photographer for photographers, begun with the encouragement of Claudine Hart, head of the RPS International team. Each issue gathers the month's key developments (in the studio, the camera bag, the courtroom and the gallery) and credits every source, so you can read on and judge for yourself. June set the tone: a museum devoted entirely to AI art opened in Los Angeles; Adobe moved to absorb Topaz Labs; and Apple taught the iPhone to reframe a shot after the shutter. Tools, all of them, and tools reward the photographer who stays curious and honest.
