Abstract

With the advent of AI-generated photorealistic images in easily accessible online resources, synthetic imaging suddenly is widely discussed, obscuring the quiet revolution that has transformed image-making in the digital realm over the last decades. ‘The decisive moment’ has been taken out of the photographer’s hands a long time ago and the numerous automatic mechanisms integrated into the apparatus and the editing pipeline question the idea of sole authorship. This reassessment and re-evaluation of photographic images demands for a precise, differentiated description for images that are not produced by optical means. Therefore, the term synthography determines the essence and origin of the photorealistic, artificially created image.