Let's go straight to the point. How has the contemporary debate on the role of photography been affected by AI?

Isidro Ramírez (IS): The contemporary debate on photography's role has been profoundly impacted by AI in both positive and negative ways. On one hand, AI offers new creative possibilities by enabling the generation of novel imagery that expands photography's creative horizons. However, it also raises concerns about over-reliance on technology diminishing human vision and skill. My project specifically explores this debate by juxtaposing my original human-captured images of Jakarta with AI re-interpretations, highlighting differences between human memory and machine visualisation. This invites reflection on how AI might transform photography from factual documentation to more subjective art. But it also shows AI cannot fully replace human observational and storytelling abilities (at least at the time this interview was conducted). Overall, AI compels us to thoughtfully re-examine photography's essence and future.

© Isidro Ramírez, "Bird Shop" from the series 'Jakarta - Modest Interventions and Minor Improvisations 2016'

© Isidro Ramírez, "Bird Shop" from the series 'Jakarta - Intervened and Improvised 2023'

Your projects are slow documentaries that focus on a reading/way of looking at the urban landscape and possible interpretations of how people relate to the environment in all its complexity. In two previous interviews published in Urbanautica (Closed for winter 2013 / Jakarta - Modest Interventions and Minor Improvisations 2016), we reasoned on these conditions and relevant aspects of your photography which has a lot to do with distinguishing what is significant from pointless. How does this "revision" of the project "Jakarta - Modest Interventions and Minor Improvisations 2016" fit into your path?

IS: Experiencing cities firsthand through walking and observing has always been central to my urban photography, capturing textures and rhythms impossible to convey via AI. Yet as we discussed, all photography involves subjective framing, selection, and interpretation. The AI images now add radical new filters and perceptions that displace my lived experiences. While disconnecting me from Jakarta's realities, this disorientation productively challenges my own memory's constructed nature. It affirms photography's tension between recording and interpreting realities. But it also underscores the irreplaceable value of being physically present in cities we photograph to ground our perspectives. Photography is image, interpretation, and experience. AI changes the first two, but not the primacy of the latter for impactful, ethical photography. While AI can enhance photos and give photographers ideas, the most meaningful photographs still come from a human photographer's direct experience and personal vision. AI cannot (at least not yet) replicate the creativity, humanity, and ethics that come from a photographer's unique point of view.

© Isidro Ramírez, "Car Cleaning" from the series 'Jakarta - Modest Interventions and Minor Improvisations 2016'

© Isidro Ramírez, "Car Cleaning" from the series 'Jakarta - Intervened and Improvised 2023'

© Isidro Ramírez, "Sunday Market" from the series 'Jakarta - Modest Interventions and Minor Improvisations 2016'

© Isidro Ramírez, "Sunday Market" from the series 'Jakarta - Intervened and Improvised 2023'

© Isidro Ramírez, "Dredging" from the series 'Jakarta - Modest Interventions and Minor Improvisations 2016'

© Isidro Ramírez, "Dredging" from the series 'Jakarta - Intervened and Improvised 2023'

Technically, for those unfamiliar with new AI software, can you briefly introduce us to the "process" and your pursued methodology? What are the difficulties you encountered in using this technology? What limits but also opportunities have you encountered?

IS: I used a type of AI software called generative adversarial networks (GANs) which can create new photorealistic images modeled after existing photos. The process involves training the algorithms on human-created image collections so they can replicate their visual styles. To generate my Jakarta images, I fed my original photographs into the AI system prompt by a prompt. The algorithms produced wholly new renditions with altered scenery and subjects. However, their interpretations often randomly departed from my initial documentary intentions. The technology has limits in comprehending human context and meaning. Capturing authentic lived experiences still requires human photographic skills. But AI offers intriguing creative interactions between human and machine visualisation.

© Isidro Ramírez, "Bus Shelter" from the series 'Jakarta - Modest Interventions and Minor Improvisations 2016'

© Isidro Ramírez, "Bus Shelter" from the series 'Jakarta - Intervened and Improvised 2023'

© Isidro Ramírez, "Food Processing Station" from the series 'Jakarta - Modest Interventions and Minor Improvisations 2016'

© Isidro Ramírez, "Food Processing Station" from the series 'Jakarta - Intervened and Improvised 2023'

Photography is also learning by doing. What are the main takeaways of this investigation? What did you learn in general through “Jakarta - Intervened and Improvised 2023”? And how has your awareness of the original documentary work and the way you looked at those photographs changed?

IS: This project taught me that while AI can emulate the look of human photography, it lacks the intentionality, discernment, and connection with reality that makes documentary photography meaningful. Yet it also showed photography has always involved subjective choices in framing and composition. AI adds another layer of abstraction and creativity, expanding what photography can be. It will not replace hands-on skills, but can complement human creativity. Photographers must remain thoughtful about when AI use is appropriate versus reliance on our own learned technical and observational abilities. We have much yet to learn about AI's potentials and pitfalls for photography. This project was a valuable experiment engaging with these issues. 

You are now based in Singapore, where you are an educator at Lasalle College of Arts. In your opinion, how important is it to inform, and research the role of the visual maker in a technologically unstable and constantly evolving scenario? More than 20 years after your studies at Goldsmith, what do you think are the most relevant evolutions of the scenario? And what are the challenges of young visual makers who still want to approach this profession today?

IS: As an educator, I believe understanding AI's impacts is crucial for young visual artists today. Photography has always evolved with technology, but AI represents an unprecedented shift. Students must study critical perspectives to use these tools thoughtfully. Technical mastery remains essential - AI is a creative asset, not a shortcut replacing skills. Furthermore, in our age of misinformation, photography education must emphasize ethics, truth-seeking and diverse perspectives. Photography's mission to reflect realities, connect humans, and uphold its credibility matters more than ever. AI is an opportunity to reexamine photography's foundations and renew its socially responsible application. Students also need adaptable mindsets to navigate future changes we cannot foresee now. But photography's core humanistic values will remain relevant.

© Isidro Ramírez, "Three Surgery" from the series 'Jakarta - Modest Interventions and Minor Improvisations 2016'

© Isidro Ramírez, "Food Processing Station" from the series 'Jakarta - Intervened and Improvised 2023'

In a recent podcast with Anthony Palmer, you mentioned the fact that the limitations of photography (in being in any case a possible sometimes ambiguous interpretation of the visible) have become a paradigm for your work. A paradigm that is informed by the understanding of phenomenology and how we perceive/abstract the world. I wonder about the importance of experiencing the city, physically, and not just theorizing about it. When you look at these images produced via algorithms (though fed by your own ingredients), what sensations do you rediscover of Jakarta?

IS: This AI "postscript" to my Jakarta project aligns with my longstanding interest in photography's limitations and subjectivity. As I studied at Goldsmiths, postmodern photographic theory shaped my perspective, as did phenomenology's insights about perception. I became fascinated with photography's tension between factual documentation and more ambiguous subjective art. My images aim to transcend the purely visual to also convey deeper sociocultural meanings about how people relate to their environments. Revisiting my Jakarta archive through AI allowed me to experiment with this subjective essence of photography. The original images focused on human improvisation and adaptation. The AI versions with their dreamlike, sometimes surreal qualities reveal more about creative algorithms than my lived experiences. This project celebrates photography's ongoing evolution while affirming the continued need for human vision.
Looking back at these AI-filtered visions of Jakarta, I felt renewed appreciation for the irreplaceable vitality of the real city I had captured in the originals. While technology continues evolving new multimedia immersive capacities, photographs at their best remain uniquely poised to provoke our imaginations, not replace our need for direct experience.


© Isidro Ramírez, "Storage Book" from the series 'Jakarta - Modest Interventions and Minor Improvisations 2016'

© Isidro Ramírez, "Storage Book" from the series 'Jakarta - Intervened and Improvised 2023'

© Isidro Ramírez, "Seating Area" from the series 'Jakarta - Modest Interventions and Minor Improvisations 2016'

© Isidro Ramírez, "Seating Area" from the series 'Jakarta - Intervened and Improvised 2023'

© Isidro Ramírez, "Sleeping Place" from the series 'Jakarta - Modest Interventions and Minor Improvisations 2016'

© Isidro Ramírez, "Sleping Place" from the series 'Jakarta - Intervened and Improvised 2023'

Isidro Ramírez (website)
Book Jakarta, Velvet Cell