AI Moonrise Hernandez

The Danziger Gallery is showing a large-format AI-generated color version of Ansel Adams' Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico. Prompt: make a realistic color version of Ansel Adams' iconic Moonrise over Hernandez. Reaction: gross. But also, this is the AI version of Richard Prince shenanigans. Which pulls us into Prince's Untitled Cowboys — Marlboro ads torn from magazines, rephotographed, sold for millions — and one real cowboy photographer describing what it feels like to watch someone copy your life's work and sell it for $3 million. From there: do we use AI, and what for? Jay uses it as a marketing coach. Bill mostly avoids it for not exactly ethical reasons. Harder question: if a client can get a convincing image from a prompt in an hour, why should they call us? Bill says it’s a business case: if the people who need appealing to – the audience – are moved by interacting with real images and film, and are actively turned off by AI facsimile, then AI ain’t gonna cut it. "Knowing something real happened matters to me in the context of viewing photographs." Links: Ansel Adams Moonrise, Hernandez, NM – the real one The AI version of Ansel’s Moonrise, along with a new statement released by the Ansel Adams Trust Giuseppe Lo Sciavo at Danziger Gallery Richard Prince “Untitled Cowboy” Sam Abell’s iconic cowboy photograph Bill’s Norm Clasen profile Bill’s Lynn Goldsmith Copyright Story Cal Newport Author of Deep Work; Jay heard him on the Offline podcast talking about AI and the atrophy of difficulty Follow Jay on Instagram: @jayfram Follow Bill on Instagram and Threads: @sawalich Read Bill's newsletter, Art + Math: artandmath.substack.com Jay's photography: jayfram.com Bill’s photography: sawalich.com Write to us: jay@jayfram.com / bill@sawalich.com Rate and review Continuous Agitation on Apple Podcasts — it actually helps.