20 hours ago
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Opinion|Did the Camera Ever Tell the Truth?
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/10/opinion/photography-truth-ai-images.html
The camera is a tool — but to do what? Images shape our daily life, yet we rarely question how they’re made or why.
As filmmakers, we’re fascinated by how humans use cameras and by the immense influence images have. For 15 years, we’ve investigated the history of the camera, and we’ve turned the material we gathered into a feature documentary, chronicling how people behind the camera went from capturing the image of a backyard to today’s multibillion-dollar content industry.
“Death of a Fantastic Machine” is a shorter version of that documentary, and here we focus on something that emerged as the key factor: how economic forces have shaped what we see, from the earliest photography to the algorithms and A.I. of today.
Some say there are an estimated 45 billion cameras on earth today, giving humankind access to perspectives far beyond our own reach. But the very tool that could help us understand the world is increasingly used to distort it. With A.I., this distortion has reached a new level. When any photo or video can be manufactured, what happens to the camera’s credibility? Can we still trust what we see?
English (US)