Dear reader,

There is a pressing discomfort in the knowledge that no image is necessarily real. Generative AI first dissolved trust in mundane photos, then spread to images of personal and collective value. We reflect on this with some hesitation—the discourse surrounding AI has become cliché, boring, and uninspired. Technology made it so that we can no longer look at a photo of two public figures and be certain they met. But how soon will it be until we will see photos of ourselves and are unable to confirm whether they are real?

Still, there is value to unsettling imagery. Photos have been altered since the Daguerreotype, but we’ve always treated them as reflections of the real (or real enough). There are genuine ecological and ethical critiques to make against AI images, but we should recognize their value: they force the viewer to reflect on the symbols they usually casually accept.

This week, as our eyes betray us, the Nass returns to lived experiences, all sappy and glad—writers reflect on their own changing families, the desire to be around haters, queer cowboys, and more. They take apart images with preestablished meanings. And in our discomfort, they make something new.

xoxo,
Frankie Solinsky Duryea and Alex Norbrook, co-EICs