Thinking photography in the Age of AI: Katrina Sluis in conversation with Victor Burgin

This interview was commissioned by The Photographers' Gallery as part of a research project supported by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art that traces the transformation of photographic practices from the socially aware political contexts of the 1980s to the realms of computational, machinic and AI practices of today.

A key starting point for this project was Victor Burgin’s ‘Thinking Photography’ (first published 1982). Featuring contributions by notable figures such as Allan Sekula, John Tagg, Umberto Eco, and Walter Benjamin, Victor Burgin's foundational theory book for photography asserts that photographs are inherently subjective, shaped by the socio-cultural context in which they are created and interpreted. It emphasises the need to contextualise images within broader narratives and ideologies. Since its publication, Victor Burgin has continued to write on images as psychological events inseparable from language, including computer-generated imagery and most recently AI.

The interview between Katrina Sluis and Victor Burgin took place over email at the beginning of 2025.