The photo above is an image of transition and transformation. This little patch of dirt on our land becomes a puddle of mud after a rain. After a few days, the sun dries out the dirt and it becomes this wild pattern of shapes. Over time, the wind will eventually beat them down into dust again. But this morning it is raining, and the pool of water is about 12 inches deep. In the coming days it will dry and become something other than this photo. Change is constant, change is inevitable.
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Yesterday, I wrote about the most important thing we artists can do to save our businesses, our creativity, our very souls as humans who make things for other humans.
I called it reinvention and transition.
I called on others to embrace it because it is so top of mind for me now, and I worry that so many people will be caught flat-footed in the coming months and years.
One of the discussions no one is having is what comes next… and I don’t mean next decade or next millennium. I mean next year… in three months.
A few months ago, I wrote that we (creatives) have six months to get it right. In fact, almost anyone involved in making something had around six months.
Today we are down to four. And I am not trying to fear-monger or create panic. Not that little old me could ever have that much reach, nor would I want it.
Reinvention is coming for you whether you are ready for it or not.
AI, and I know we are tired of hearing those two letters, is coming for everyone who hasn’t reinvented themselves, or at least started down that path.
As of this date, there has been a bit less adoption in big business than the techbros thought, but they are willing to play the long game. And they have the capital to do it.
And their long game is not good for people who make things like art and music.
Did you know that a good percentage of young people cannot identify the bands and musicians they listen to on Spotify? Why is that?
Could it be that the age of streaming has removed the artists from the equation? When only the sound matters, and there is no engagement with the artist, there is less interest at all in who produced it.
Spotify, to its credit, is removing AI slop as fast as they can identify it, but much of it gets through. Currently, the numbers are estimated to be 15-20% of the catalog is AI generated.
And the techbros keep pushing, creating tools to help the songs not be identified as AI, as the writing tools are doing. Beating AI detection is big money, and there are literally dozens of players in that field.
Recently, an AI image received copyright, and it is seemingly a big deal, although it is not as big of a deal as they are playing it to be.
“The first AI-generated image to receive copyright protection is titled “A Single Piece of American Cheese,” created using the Invoke platform in early 2025. The U.S. Copyright Office granted protection because the creator, Kent Keirsey of Invoke, demonstrated meaningful human involvement through 35 manual edits and compositional choices using advanced AI inpainting features—surpassing the threshold for human authorship required by law. The registration covers the creative selection, arrangement, and coordination of AI-generated components, not the raw AI output itself.”
— Perplexity
The artist combined a lot of AI-generated stuff into a single collage, and THAT effort was rewarded with a copyright. It is important to note that the individual items created are NOT able to be copyrighted.
But it opened a door, maybe just a crack, that the techbros will continue to chip away.
If you want to use generated visuals in your work, you MUST document everything you do… every cut, every crop, every color change… everything! Only then can you show that you have met the level of human involvement to warrant a copyright. And that is a lot of effort.
Until it isn’t.
That will be made simple when someone creates an AI tool to monitor the changes and save them automatically as you work. Coming in 3, 2, 1…
Techbros are coming for us. They do not recognize artists as viable, and they will put considerable effort into destroying, wholesale, the fields we love.
Writing.
Photography.
Illustration.
Design.
Music.
Because it is valuable.
That’s right. What we do has value, and they want to own it.
And here is where reinvention comes in for me.
A bit of background.
I have had to reinvent myself so often that I feel like a Chameleon.
In college, I was a music theory and composition major. I won several competitions and had my music played internationally.
My first job was as a drummer playing covers in military installations for soldiers on R&R. I had longed to be in a traveling band, and I finally achieved it.
And I hated it.
So I joined a jazz trio, and we played all over the valley. In clubs, small concerts, and even the Playboy Club, where I would spend most of the night with my brushes. Sticks were just too loud for the first three sets… heh.
Music was wonderful, but it didn’t begin to pay the bills. And the only way to make more was to travel for gigs and, as I mentioned, that was a non-starter for me.
I had been making art (photography and design) for the bands, then other bands, then people who were around the bands, and I loved doing it.
Without even realizing it, I became a professional photographer.
Fashion and beauty work was what I loved doing. And I was pretty good at it.
From a borrowed backroom to a downtown studio with massive amounts of natural light, I kept working and building a book of business.
I spent time in New York and Chicago, having a studio in both. Heady days, long days, shooting, processing, printing in rented and borrowed darkrooms. Constantly in search of that break that would lead to Vogue or Vanity Fair.
Until I wasn’t.
The fashion industry became toxic with the introduction of “Heroin Chic” and editors asking for anorexic women with dark circles under their eyes to be edgy and oh so chic.
I had a daughter. I could not validate that shit, so I came back to Phoenix to stay, got a gig running a photography school and slowly changed my focus from models to product, editorial, and travel.
And, just like that, I transitioned into a banker.
I didn’t want to be a banker.
In those days, getting agencies to pay you was an art in and of itself. “Lost” invoices, late payments, being last to be paid…
We had to cancel a well-earned vacation once because I had over $70K in receivables and $3K in the bank. (In those days we had to front all expenses, and the vendors wanted to be paid in thirty days, the agencies taking 60 and 90 days. You can see the problem.)
So one day, I just stopped working for agencies and decided to become one.
I started in my extra bedroom, and grew it to the third largest agency in Phoenix in less than 6 years. We won many awards, and were number four on the Fast Fifty of Phoenix in 2000. Owner and Creative Director I was privlieged to work with some wonderful clients: Motorola, Bank One Ballpark, Omnicell, PeopleSoft, and dozens of other businesses and startups of the early internet years,
Then the dotbomb, then 911, then a partner with less scruples than a slug… and I was back to a one-man shop.
Reinvention following reinvention.
I started teaching photography to small groups on the weekends a couple of times a year and found myself teaching international workshops. Voted one of the top 12 Workshops in the World by Photo District News in the same month I stopped doing them was an ironic touch.
Reinvention called again and I moved on to do other things including teaching online.
Project 52 was popular and a lot of fun. I taught literally hundreds of photographers over the course of 13 years. Many of them working as full time shooters today. Working with the students each week was my happy place, something I looked forward to every Wednesday.
Until it wasn’t.
Online teaching went the way of the compact disk.
And now Wednesdays are just Wednesdays.
And I am looking at reinvention again. I mean I am looking straight into the face of it.
I have to find something to do that will excite me and involve me and engage me. That is simply who I am, and I cannot even imagine sitting around in some sort of ‘retirement’ limbo.
And that brings me around to the fact that reinvention is not only something I have to do for sanity, but it is imperative for my art.
So I am all-in on AI and the value it can bring, as well as the changes it will offer - or demand - we make in our businesses, our lives, and our artistic vision.
No, I’m not going to be making “photos” on Midjourney, I can’t stand that stuff. But I am excited about some of the things we can automate, like client acquisition, developing markets, and building a business that combines all of the stuff that I love to do.
Transitioning, reinventing, changing… whatever you call it, I am neck-deep into it now.
A few images to share:
After five hours in the saddle, I got to Taos an hour before the thunderstorm that had chased me all the way from Pagosa Springs. I had to stop three times for the rain to clear enough to see the road, and riding in the rain is a whole other experience than the dry roads. I love it, but it does create some pucker moments.
This cemetery is real, and is still in operation, although it is rarely used these days. I was struck by the seemingly chaotic crosses and the little adobe structure in the background. Lots of texture, lots of design. I processed it as I would a print with some warm toner for more clarity and a feeling of time gone by.
On a photowalk through a little suburb of Peoria, Illinois, I saw this forgotten bicycle in an alleyway. The light was very flat, but I knew I could pull a bit more contrast in post. The colorful leaves played a big part in the composition, and the various textures were also part of the scene I wanted to show.
I was struck by this natural design. The ivy was a bright green against the warm wood, and I loved the composition. The colorful leaves scattered in the background gave it texture and helped pull the tree to the foreground. Lovely, soft, overhead light helped the colors show brightly and bring the whole thing together.
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