Ronald Nelson Photography

The Lives of the Saints; if Renaissance artists were honest about how much they loved cats.

Created with the assistance of AI.

A Dark Fairy Tale.

What is photography? For me, it's not about reality. Photographers choose a point of view, lenses, lighting, timing, and whatever it takes to realize a vision. From the earliest times some photographers have been retouching and compositing photos in the darkroom. New tools like digital cameras and Photoshop accelerated that process. I strive to create interesting images with feeling and mystery. I study and learn from hundreds of artists and am influenced by and synthesize t when making something new.

Midjourney AI is a new tool that lets me explore options at incredible speeds. Like I did in my head, it draws on influences then merges those influences to create something new and different. Instead of pushing a camera button, I provide the AI with phrases. I no longer focus on the world but on the history of art and photography. In a way, the images wouldn't exist without my action, choice of input, and discretion on what to save and share.

We can argue about if I did anything creative or am anyway responsible for these images. That's what makes this interesting. I don't know what photography is, it's always changing as are the tools used to make images. Whatever these images are, I think they are mysterious and beautiful and wanted to share them.