With artificial intelligence (AI) text-to-image generators exploding in popularity right now, it sometimes feels like photography is facing its most serious threat yet.

In the last few months, DALL-E has been used to create shockingly realistic portraits of people who do not exist. Meanwhile, a Midjourney user even won a fine art competition using a picture he created with the software.

With AI systems like DALL-E and Midjourney effortlessly churning out photo-realistic images, it may seem like there is no hope left for photography.

With the havoc AI-generated art could wreck on the field of photography, for some people, this may bring to mind the way the invention of photography devastated painters in the nineteenth century.

However, a recent article by Livia Gershon in JSTOR Daily has revealed how this narrative about photography destroying painting may be all wrong.

Old Dutch Painters Offer Hope

According to Gershon’s article, photography historian, Hans Rooseboom argues that if anything, portrait painting actually experienced a resurgence at a time when it seemed like the invention of the camera could decimate the art form.