Glitching in the Mid-2000s
In the mid-2000s, I carried a 16-bit digital back everywhere for better highlights. People questioned if it was real photography. Twenty years later, the AI argument feels familiar.
In the mid-2000s, I got a digital back for my Hasselblad 503CX: the Imacon V96C.
It was built as a studio camera, but at the time it was the only digital camera with a true 16-bit chip. That meant information in the highlights and shadows and digital greens that didn’t keep me up at night.
It was heavy. It required a separate hard drive to carry along to transfer images into. It only shot up to 400 ISO, which meant I needed to carry lights with me everywhere and it was glitchy as hell.
The conversation at the time was whether digital photography was or wasn’t photography and often showing work made with the back, I’d receive pushback. Something about me as a person and creative in general. I somehow was “less than” because of my early adoption of digital cameras.
I didn’t care. I loved that digital back, glitches and all. I’m sharing this because the creative landscape around Generative AI feels so similar today.
The above GenAI image is made from a custom Adobe Firefly model trained on some glitchy images that were made with the V96C back.
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Okay, Unscripted! is written by Leah Fasten, a photographer and creative director based in San Francisco and New York.
“Okay, Unscripted” is Leah’s GenAI sketchbook and includes technical experiments, visual journal entries, and case studies. Unless named, all visual work on this site is made using GenAI. Words are written by Leah with SEO help from AI.
Read the baller interview with the remarkable Sarah Deragon at her inspring Substack “Field Notes from the Intersection of AI & Photography.”
Leah Fasten’s photography is at leahfasten.studio
Learn more about “Okay, Unscripted!” here.
Check out past entries here, in the archive.
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