Automated Photography

For the past twenty years, photographers have been integrating images produced autonomously by machines into their work. We witness a paradigm shift in the process of creating photography: From photographic capture in the strict sense to appropriation, automated and computational practices, which respond to a conception of space that is less and less built on the equivalence between the human eye and the machine.

The project is in-between theoretical and applied research: while it is necessary to contextualize the changes introduced by automation into a broader history of photography and visual culture, as well as into a theoretical reflection on the automated image, it is also essential to produce a tangible and factual understanding of their technical and aesthetic challenges. By combining an analytical and theoretical approach with a reflection resulting from the practical confrontation with these technical devices, the project aims to take advantage of the crossroads of these different fields. The synthesis is based on a practical approach (by applying these technologies), an aesthetic approach (by analyzing the visual qualities of these devices and their creative potential) and a theoretical approach (by placing the practical results in a cultural, social and political context).