In more than 20 years as a photographer, I've had a few photoshop controversies. There have been times my work was accused of being over-edited (it wasn't) and there were times I even got fired because I refused to edit work beyond what I was comfortable with.

The reality is that it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is art. The abundance of photo editing apps, filters and AI-enhanced manipulations has only added to the confusion of authenticity.

The result is to simply label everything as fake, inauthentic and misleading.

But let's unpack the nuance of photo editing and what can constitute as acceptable manipulation versus what goes too far.

https://jamespatrick.com/