10 Ways to Stop Thinking About The AI Apocalypse and Keep Creating Art

It’s all a media-hyped shiny new thing. It ain’t killing photography or art.

Bri near Page, Arizona. Photo by the author.

Everywhere I turn these days, folks are talking about the end of this or that because of AI. No more photography, no more artists, no more musicians… just tech bros in Lambos spinning up the algorithms.

Bah.

It is the new thing on the block. Like those bored ape things, they are here today, and nobody knows nothin’ about them tomorrow.

Art prevails.

Artists prevail. We always will.

When everything is digital, the pall becomes palpable. So many people find it necessary to unplug, to step away from technology for a respite. I go on motorcycle rides and rarely turn on the tech. I find I can ride and be quite happy without someone telling me that Elon did this or Maher said that.

We aren’t being replaced by cartoons spit out by a prediction model because we were never interested in prediction models. That is not how art works.

But if you are getting down a bit, here are ten ways we can stimulate our creative muscles; none of them involve ‘prompts’, and AI can’t even begin to compete.

1. Experiment with new mediums or techniques
   Have you ever tried Gum Bichromate printing? Have you shot with digital Infrared? Ever shot portraits on a Hasselblad? Try getting out of the normal approaches you use and try something totally different.
   I am playing with old digicams quite a lot and love the experiential use and the images I am creating from 12-year-old point and shoots. Rent a camera you have never used before and spend a week making photographs. Or try a new post-processing trend… who knows, you may tweak it a bit and have a pretty cool look of your own.

2. Collaborate with other artists
   Get five of your buds to do a photo story on a place, or an event, or whatever you want to do as a group. Shoot together and edit together. You could trade images for editing in each other’s style, or even mix them all up in a free-for-all approach. Meet with cohorts once or twice a month and bring stuff to share. Get out of the office and MEET with fellow artists. My bud Jerry and I meet at the same little Mexican restaurant in Tempe twice a month. I come home from those meetings and fill pages with ideas — actionable ideas — that we enthusiastically discuss over tacos. (Shredded beef, extra salsa.)

3. Take breaks and engage in self-care
   I set alarms for myself to get up every hour and move. Sitting is death — I know how close I came. Do a few minutes of movement: get the mail, walk Fido, feed the cat and maybe it will stop pushing your cup of pens to the floor in a bold move to gain attention. Eat well, stop binging on other people’s work, and focus on your own self. Ride your motorcycle over Beartooth Highway in frigid conditions… well… you know.

4. Set achievable goals and celebrate accomplishments
   This one is so important. Set manageable goals. Not pie-in-the-sky and massively difficult to achieve goals. And give yourself a reward for achieving them. Put something up that you want to do and make it the celebratory reward for a goal accomplished. As I was working on my last book, I was also itching to go on a couple-day motorcycle ride. I made that my reward. When I finished the book and finished the second edit, I would reward myself with a couple of days in the saddle.

5. Practice gratitude and positive self-talk
   We tell ourselves terrible stories, you know. We do. From imposter syndrome to worrying about how far behind we are from someone else to how we never really deserved to be happy doing this stuff — it’s not a real job anyway. That is all BS. Never sink into your own self-made depression. Keep positive thoughts and remind yourself of how grateful you are for those who support and love you. It’s not woo-woo, it’s science. We control our brains and our brains control whether we see opportunities or obstructions.

6. Surround yourself with inspiration and positive influences
   Oh yeah… it has been said that you are the blend of the five people you spend the most time with. Now ask yourself if that is who you want to be. Take a moment and think of who you are hanging with the most and whether they either inspire you or throw up roadblocks. Look around your office or home. Are they conducive to creativity, or do they hold that creativity at bay for reasons you can change? I have had to make some changes in my life and friends that were painful and hard, but I knew that in the end, the toxicity would be hard to avoid.

7. Take time for play and exploration
   Play. Oh man, how we need to play more. Remember hobbies? Remember doing something just to be entertained by doing it. These days if you make a watercolor, everyone is telling you to open an Etsy store and sell it. Everything is a transaction. But if we play, the only transaction is a feeling of happiness, and challenges met. Whether it’s painting murals in the kid’s rooms or riding a motorcycle over high mountain passes, you don’t have to monetize it… just have fun.

8. Seek out new experiences and learning opportunities
   Everyone has a mental list of things and experiences they love. We also keep one on the things we don’t like or have never experienced. Take the second list out, the one with the stuff we haven’t done before. Like a Monster Truck Rally, or a community opera, or bicycle race. Immerse yourself in it and try to find out why so many other people love it. In the end, you may not be looking for a used Bronco, or humming a tune from Pagliacci, but you will have many more ideas in your head to sort through and be inspired by.

9. Connect with and seek feedback from your audience
   Ask and ye shall receive. Finding out what others think about what you are doing is a good thing. No, not what they think about you — who cares — but what they think about your work. Feedback is important. It can also be painfully direct, confusing, and make you want to drink heavily in dark corner bars with waitresses named Brandy who call you ‘hun”. But the insight you can gain can be incredibly powerful when you analyze it. I do self-audits with selected members of my community every year. I want to know if they believe I am teaching the best possible information. This has kept my class relevant, and my sanity in check.

10. Reframe failures as opportunities for growth.
    Every time you fail it really can be seen as a success. After all, you did something and 99% of people will never even try. And you learned something. Maybe you were too early to market, or maybe the style didn’t hit like you thought it would. And maybe you were just a lazy ass who didn’t work hard enough because you spent too much time dreaming and not enough time marketing, or shooting, or doing — you know — your taxes. Whatever it was, you can fix it next time you go forward with the intent to do something great.

My wife's last pair of ballet shoes. Photo by the author.

There are a lot of challenges creative people will have to face day to day, month to month, and year to year. Nothing new there.

Some of us, sadly, will be defeated before we even join the fight. But I have no interest in whether this or that is an obstacle or a distraction. I want to keep marching to my own drummer (Elvin Jones, thank you) and make my own stuff.

So the next time you read somebody saying something stupid like “AI will be the death of photography”, remember that they are paid to keep you in panic mode, and really do not have your best interests at heart. Remind yourself that you do more than ‘prompt’ an algorithm; you see, you feel, you make decisions based on creative exploration. YOU are an artist. In fact, you are the only artist like you in the entire universe.

That’s kinda cool when you think about it.

Grab this list and do one of them. Or, even better, make a list of your own and do that. How could it hurt?

I am a photographer, designer, and photo editor. You can find me at my self-named website or at Project 52 Pro System (enrollment begins January 6, 2023) where I teach commercial photography online. This is our tenth year of teaching, and it is the most unique online class you will find anywhere.

Check out my newsletter and community at Substack. We are new, but growing.

You can find my books on Amazon, and I have taught two classes at CREATIVELIVE.