318. What does this website mean when it says that photographers have to “convince” viewers to trust each photograph?

It simply means that the “free ride” of the early digital era is over (see #3 on this page).

Photographers can no longer put images before viewers and assume that viewers will trust the image if it only looks convincing.

• In the 19th and 20th centuries, most of the public assumed that if a photograph looked undoctored, it probably was undoctored.

• Digital technology changed all that, because even substantive changes can now be completely undetectable even to an expert.

The public is learning to assume that impressive images are “Doctored or aigmented unless labeled otherwise.”

Photographers are learning that the burden of proof is on them if they want the public to trust their photographs.

With good reason, members of the general public no longer blindly trust unfamiliar images the way they routinely did in the era before Photoshop, smartphones, and AIFI.

In the 21st century, viewers have to be “convinced.”