Fred Ritchin: Photography for a better world
In this episode, we talk with Fred Ritchin about photography for a better world. Fred offers a thoughtful reflection on image-making practices and their evolutions over the fifty years that he has been involved in the photography industry. He speaks about the power of images, and how this power relates to the importance of contextualisation and transparency about the image-making process. Finally, he touches on the shifts that are happening with regard to synthetic imagery generated by AI technologies and what this means for the future of photography.
What does photography ethics mean to Fred?
“The purpose of photography is not to make more images. It’s not to be celebrated as the greatest photographer. It’s not to be picked as the picture of the year. The ethics of it is that you’re a citizen of the world, and you’re using photography to make the world a better place – whether as a witness, as an advocate, as a family photographer … you’re using it in such a way to be useful, be helpful in the world. And this sort of disconnect – like the photo festivals where there’s great photos, other photographers see them, and then we say ‘photography is flourishing!’ – well, but my question is: but what’s its impact on the world outside of the bubble of other photographers? And to me that’s what photo ethics is. You know, I used to start many of my lectures: ‘I don’t care about photography, I care about the world.’ And if we could use the photography to make it a better world, that’s the ethics of it.” (41:35)
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Fred Ritchin is Dean Emeritus of the International Center of Photography and previously was professor of Photography and Imaging at New York University for more than twenty years. He was picture editor of Horizon and the New York Times Magazine, executive editor of Camera Arts magazine, created the first multimedia version of the New York Times newspaper, and then conceived and edited the Times’s first non-linear online documentary project, “Bosnia: Uncertain Paths to Peace,” nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in public service. He also conceptualized the Four Corners Project, a software that allows photographers to contextualize their imagery, and is working with major organizations on ways to support the credibility of the photograph as a witness in the age of artificial intelligence. He teaches and lectures widely on photography, human rights, artificial intelligence, and alternative media.
His books on the future of imaging include In Our Own Image: The Coming Revolution in Photography (1990), After Photography (2008), and Bending the Frame: Photojournalism, Documentary, and the Citizen (2013). His next book, The Synthetic Eye on the challenges of artificial intelligence, will be published by Thames & Hudson in 2024,.
You can learn more about his work here https://thefifthcorner.org