21/10 | Boris Eldagsen

Conference: Photography vs. Promptography

Boris Eldagsen won the open category creative/art at the Sony World Photography Awards in 2023 with his work “Pseudomnesia: The Electrician”. The eerie black and white image shows two women of different generations: the older woman appears to be clinging to the younger woman from behind. Boris made the news, not only for winning this award, but for rejecting it: the winning image was created by artificial intelligence, and therefore, it was not considered a photograph.

In this two-hour lecture, Boris aims to give an idea of how photography and promptography (the generation of images by artificial intelligence through text instructions called prompts) differ and where they are related.

The future of photography is no longer defined by the medium itself, but also by artificial intelligence technologies. AI image generators have incorporated the photographic visual language and can generate it synthetically as “promptography”.

What does this mean for the relationship between photography and promptography? What skills do I need as a photographer and what skills do I need as a prompter? Where do they complement each other and where do they compete?

Boris analyzes a relationship that most people describe as “complicated” and shows where it may develop in the future. Attendees will have the opportunity to interact with Eldagsen in a question and answer session following his comprehensive lecture.

We will connect virtually with Boris from Masia Bas.

The lecture will be given in English, there will be a person present to clarify specific translation doubts.

If after this introduction you feel like learning how to work with generative images, you can also sign up for the hands-on workshop on Sunday.