This talk will present, and critically reflect upon, the development to date of my project 'Frankenstein’s Camera': a series of photographic landscapes created by blending my own photographs with AI-generated imagery, using text prompts based on the writing of 'Frankenstein' author Mary Shelley.

Using Shelley’s cautionary tale of scientific hubris as a lens through which to view recent developments in generative artificial intelligence, 'Frankenstein’s Camera' invites the viewer to reflect on the photographic images produced by machine learning systems as a new kind of technical image. An image which, in parallel with Frankenstein’s creature, has been given ‘life’ (or, in the context of photography, the impression of being captured ‘in the light’) by artificial means.

Speaking from my position as an artist for whom the appeal of photography has always lain in its perceived connection to some ‘necessarily real thing’, in this talk I discuss the various conceptual, theoretical, and ethical challenges 'Frankenstein’s Camera' has posed for my photographic practice; how the work’s development has informed my understanding of generative AI’s ‘visualising gesture’; and the resulting images’ complex relationship to the real.

Finally, I will reflect on what insights Shelley’s novel might hold for photographic practitioners in the age of generative AI; and why, unlike Frankenstein who famously flees from his creation, we should endeavour to approach such systems with care.