Why Mosseri is Wrong About Photography

News

Feb 3

In a recent memo that has the photography community in an uproar, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri suggested that our pursuit of high-quality, professional imagery is becoming "boring" and "cheap." His argument? In 2026, AI can fake perfection so easily that "the professional look becomes the tell." To prove we’re real, he suggests we should lean into a "raw aesthetic" shaky video, blurry photos, and unflattering candids.

He calls this a "defensive" aesthetic. I call it a fundamental misunderstanding of why we pick up a camera in the first place.

To understand why Mosseri is wrong, we have to look at the difference between The Map Reader and The GPS Driver.

The Analogy

Imagine you’ve spent your life mastering the art of navigation. You can read topographic lines, navigate by the stars, and predict how the weather will change the terrain. When you choose a route, you aren't just "getting to a destination"; you are engaging with the world through a deep, hard earned knowledge of the land.

Then, the GPS driven self driving car arrives. It can get anyone to the same destination with zero effort. It is "perfect" at the task of transit.

Now, imagine the head of a major travel app tells you: "Because the GPS is so perfect, looking like you know where you’re going is now a 'tell' that you’re just a machine. If you want people to believe you’re a real navigator, you should start driving into ditches. Get lost on purpose. Stop at every dead end. Only then will people trust that a human is behind the wheel."

Why "Defensive Imperfection" is a Trap

Mosseri’s logic suggests that if we make our work "worse," we distinguish ourselves from the AI. But here is the reality:

Imitation is not Authenticity: Intentionally blurring a photo to "look real" is just as performative as a "perfect" AI prompt. It’s a trend, not a truth.

The Effort is the Point: The map reader’s "quality" isn't just about the arrival; it’s about the intimacy of the journey. A photographer’s "quality" isn't just the sharp focus; it’s the fact that a human being stood in a specific place, at a specific moment, and made a hundred micro-decisions to capture a sliver of reality.

Don't Sabotage the Craft: A navigator shouldn't have to crash their car to prove they aren't a robot. Likewise, a photographer shouldn't have to throw away decades of technical mastery just to satisfy a 2026 algorithm that is currently obsessed with "rawness."

The Path Forward

In a world of "infinite doubt," the solution isn't to make bad art. The solution is to lean into Intention. The GPS can find the shortest route, but it doesn't know why the scenic route matters. AI can generate a perfect landscape, but it doesn't know the feeling of the wind on your face when you hit the shutter.

Our "quality" is our testimony. Don't let a tech executive convince you to leave hammer marks on your furniture or drive your car into a ditch just to prove you’re the one holding the keys.