When Photography 'Killed' Painting

In 1838, a camera for the first time captured a blurry, grainy human image. Within a generation, photography had matured. Every city had photo studios where ordinary people could afford a professional portrait. Painters panicked. The new technology seemed poised to kill off portraiture, a mainstay of their business. But painting didn’t die–it evolved into new forms, giving us an entirely new universe of visual storytelling, on both canvas and film.

What does that creative Cambrian explosion tell us about the AI era that’s now unfolding?

In this finale to the AI Mindset series you’ll explore:

• The birth of portrait photography
• How competition from photography revolutionized painting
• The unpredictable web of innovation that sprang from the first crude cameras