AI is not an enemy
Photography has never stood aside from technological revolutions. Movies once gave way to digital technology, darkrooms replaced by software, professional miniature cameras in phones. Every time new technology appears, people worry that photography loses its identity. But photography has never disappeared; it only changes the way of doing things and opens up new questions about creativity. For artists, AI can be a useful tool, when supporting research, finding ideas, post-production processing or visual experiments. There is no reason to turn your back on a tool that expands creative space.
But a clear boundary is needed. AI should help the artist implement ideas, not produce ideas for humans. If you just enter a command and then choose a beautiful image to call it your work, then where does the artist's creativity really lie? Technology can create images. But creating images does not mean artistic creativity.
Machines cannot yet live for humans
An algorithm can create a very beautiful mountain village, but it has never woken up at four in the morning in the cold of the highlands to wait for a market. AI can create the image of a mother by the window, but it has never sat for hours with a real mother, listening to her life story, looking at her old hands and understanding why those eyes are sad.
Computers can draw perfect sunsets. But they don't know where the photographer stood, how long they waited, and why that moment was meaningful.
That is the deepest part of photography. A photo is valuable not only because of what it displays, but also in the relationship between the photographer and the reality behind the frame. The advantage of a photographer does not lie in expensive equipment or software proficiency, but in life experience, observation ability, patience and a unique perspective.
Stepping out of the beautiful photo race
Over the years, Vietnamese photography has had many beautiful works about golden seasons, terraced fields, festivals, portraits, landscapes... But when technology can create spectacular photos in seconds, pure beauty is no longer a strong enough advantage.
We need to shift our thinking, from the question "How to take a beautiful photo?" to "What do I want to say about this person and country?".
Vietnam is changing at an unprecedented rate. Craft villages are facing the risk of fading, old neighborhoods are changing day by day, fields are giving way to urban areas, young people leave their hometowns and the elderly stay behind... These are big stories waiting for photography to explore. A photographer does not necessarily have to look for places that no one has taken. More importantly, look at places that everyone has taken with an unprecedented eye. Vietnamese photography needs more stories in images, instead of just stopping at simple beautiful photos.
Long-term project photography therefore needs to be valued more. A single photo can impress or win awards. But a project pursued for 3 years, 5 years or 10 years can become a documentary memory of a land, a community or a generation. Instead of just hunting for spectacular moments, photographers can choose to live with the character, observe changes, return to one location many times and let time become a part of the work. At that time, photography is no longer a hunt for the "most beautiful photo", but becomes a process of understanding people.
This is also the path for Vietnamese photography to go further than movement-based competitions, with in-depth projects, personal imprints and the ability to dialogue with world contemporary photography.
What does photography want to leave for the future?
On the occasion of the 10th National Congress of the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists taking place on September 17 and 18 in Hanoi, a big question needs to be raised: What does Vietnamese Photography want to leave for the future?
If we only chase after technology, we will always be slower than machines. If we only chase after eye-catching images, we will forever be behind others. But if we return to people, to life and the stories of the country, photography will retain the core values that technology cannot replace. AI can recreate an image of Vietnam, but only people living on this land can tell how Vietnam has changed, what people have lost, what they keep and where they are going.
After the era of beautiful photos is not the era of photos created by AI. It must be the era of photos that have something to say. Because in the end, photography is not decided by how good the camera is, but by the eyes behind the lens and the story that eyes want to tell.
