AI and Photography: The Conversation We Can't Avoid

This session explores what carries over from established creative practice into generative workflows, including artistic judgment, authorship, editing, and visual thinking itself. Rather than focusing on tools alone, the conversation turns to enduring creative questions: How do we recognize coherence in an image? What decisions remain fundamentally human? When possibilities multiply, does judgment matter more, not less? Drawing on backgrounds in photography, art production, consulting, editing, and experimental practice, Beth Huerta and Liz Miller-Gershfeld approach the session as a live conversation rather than a lecture, using examples and audience participation to examine how creatives can engage emerging tools without abandoning the discernment, perspective, and values they already bring to their work.

Liz introduces photographers to vibe coding, the practice of using large language models to write functional code without any developer background. Through a live demo, she shows how a creative producer mindset is all you need to build tools, apps, and interactive art pieces that expand your practice in unexpected directions.

Two friends, three decades, one industry seen from completely different seats. Jigisha Bouverat (Director of Art Production at Chiat\Day, production company owner, photography app founder) and Heather Elder (artists' rep, podcast host, founding member of the Artist Management Association, AI Committee Co-Chair) walk through the eras that shaped commercial photography, and them, in a candid conversation about what changed, what broke, and what it takes to keep building a career when the ground keeps moving.