In 2025, the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center organized the 8th edition of its annual CAPAZINE workshop, this time focusing on algorithmic image-making, with particular attention to images generated using artificial intelligence. The timing of the workshop proved particularly apt: by the autumn of 2025, the utopian expectations surrounding the infinite scalability and omnipotence of large language models had begun to appear increasingly anachronistic. At the same time, there was a growing demand among both researchers and users for more efficient use of available resources. This gave us the opportunity, at a particularly significant moment, to explore the cultural history of artificial intelligence, the shared future of AI and photographic image-making, and the broader impact of AI on photography. Particular attention was paid to the effects of AI-generated images on cultural heritage and, more generally, on the changing culture of memory. The one-year-long process of collective thinking was grounded in Vilém Flusser’s Towards a Philosophy of Photography, a work that raises radical questions about the meaning of the technical image and the new boundaries of artistic freedom. We also drew on Fred Ritchin’s Synthetic Eye: Photography Transformed in the Age of AI, published in 2025, and explored and debated its central question together with the author:
How is artificial intelligence transforming the role, credibility, and social impact of photography in the Information Age?
During the process, the participating photographers, visual artists, intermedia artists, and writer (Lilla Bényi, Honora Buzássy, Balázs Csizik, Hanna Czeglédi, Zoi Dontasz, Zsuzsa Holló, Gergő Kincses, Géza Kulcsár, Flóra Lévai, Gergely Papp, Ágnes Petrucz, Gábor Szilágyi, Máté Takács, Zsófia Vágó, and Bába Gabriella Vincze) formed seven creative groups and collaboratively developed seven new photographic projects. As part of the CAPAZINE – LET’S CODE! program, alongside exploring the practical possibilities of AI-based image-making, we also examined its critical, ethical, copyright, and environmental implications. Particular attention was paid to how generative AI is transforming our understanding of creation, originality, and authorship, as well as our relationship to visual culture and cultural heritage. The workshop process was complemented by a series of thematic lectures providing further information and inspiration. The lectures addressed, among other topics, the relationship between artificial intelligence and visual art, the symbolic role of AI in literature and film, and the potential impact of generated images on photographic practices. Participants were also introduced to artistic practices that approach artificial intelligence as a complex cultural and social phenomenon.
Emese Mucsi & Zoltán Szegedy-Maszák