After all, look at how beautiful these images are! 

 

I am not anti-Ai. In fact, I love it! Remove dog leads? Fill in a background? Take out people in the background? - sign me up. 

 

But replace the photography entirely?

In terms of family and pets the obvious answer is no. The beauty of pets are their imperfections. When you see an image of you with your family, you recall how it felt to be there, have the kids on your shoulders, hear them laugh. Those moments are immortalised in a camera.

 

But when it came to headshots? Personal branding? Does it matter? 

What then, is the difference of editing skin to look less wrinkled and more slim, to creating a face based on the original?

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Already we see the Ai generated posters, Ai models and videos. Surely if the image is just of me, does it matter for it to be ‘real’? If it was a holiday destination, would an Ai version of a lagoon be false advertising? Therefore, would clients feel catfished?

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And what other buying decisions would affect me if I knew I was buying an Ai version? Would Ai food videos make a difference to booking a table? 100%. Plus, who gets to decide how close it is to the real thing? 

 

Okay, but back again. Perhaps a holiday destination or a meal is different. What about people? If my accountant, solicitor or massage therapist, used Ai images to sell their personality when I am searching for their services, how would I respond?  

 

There would be a disconnect. I wouldn’t really know I knew what they looked like. What level of Ai was used?

Are they really that smiley? Is their hair that curly? Do they have such nice fashion sense? Everything I saw wouldn't relate to small talk, the space where we get to bond with clients on a surface level before initiating the deeper stuff.

 

As a photographer I have put off addressing the use of Ai in personal branding photography because I thought it might look like I was trying to convince an already converted audience that might have embraced the idea.

 

I worried that Ai would actually be a viable solution for personal branding photography. 

 

Until I tried it myself. 

 

I uploaded two images of myself with the prompt: I am a photographer and work with businesses, families and pets. I am a jovial, smiley, positive female and need 8 images for a personal branding photoshoot. Use my image and create a range of imagery I can use. 

 

And what surprised me the most wasn’t my flawless skin, the slimmer version of me and wonderful curls, plus the fact that it added a wedding ring - but that in an instant I felt like a liar. 

 

It kind of looked like me but it wasn’t. Something was off. 

It showed me with dogs that didn’t exist.

With families I had never photographed.

And in clothes I don’t own. It was false and I felt like a fraud. 

 

To use the images to sell myself as a photographer felt misleading. 

So I asked, what is it about feeling authentic was so important to me that I rejected a flawless slimmer and married version of myself? Why is being real a quality I hold so dear?

 

Would I feel like I was interacting with a robot? Not some that understands my needs, or even cares about me.

 

Thinking of my branding clients that hold a range of titles from Interior Designer, Physiotherapists, Estate Agents - all of which connect with their clients on a level of trust. Designing your home, massaging your shoulder, selling or buying with your finances in mind. Trust and rapport is needed to qualify.

 

My story lives in my wrinkles that show age, my chubby bits that show I am one of the thousand of post  40 year old women and understand the need to feel good about myself in front of a camera.

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You can’t build trust with false images just like you don’t sit around the computer and create memories with your children and thus, can’t build a brand of trust when your images aren’t trustworthy.