Fred Ritchin: In Our Own Image (Aperture Ideas: Writers and Artists on Photography)

The first book to address the coming revolution in photography, reissued for a contemporary audience.

Twenty years ago, before the era of digital cameras, cell phones and the internet, Fred Ritchin outlined many of the ways in which the digital age would transform society. In Our Own Image was the first book to address the coming revolution in photography, and asked pointed questions that are increasingly relevant today, including whether democracy can survive the media's facile use of digital means. By the time a second edition was published in 1999, many of Ritchin's predictions had come true. Computer embellishment of imagery had become a staple in the media and had significantly diminished photography's role as a credible witness: Newsday had published the first "future" news photograph of two feuding ice skaters as they would meet the next day, and on its cover, Time magazine darkened and blurred an image of O.J. Simpson in order to lift "a common police mug shot to the level of art, with no sacrifice to truth." This twentieth-anniversary edition features a preface by the author that contextualizes the book for a contemporary audience as it continues to shape the debate about digital imaging since its initial publication.

Fred Ritchin is dean emeritus of the International Center of Photography (ICP) School, New York. Previously, he was professor of Photography & Imaging at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he also codirected the Photography and Human Rights Program. Among his books are In Our Own Image: The Coming Revolution in Photography (Aperture, 1990, 1999, 2010) and After Photography (2008), which has been translated into six languages, and The Synthetic Eye: Photography Transformed in the Age of AI (2025). In 1999 Ritchin cofounded and directed PixelPress, working with humanitarian groups to develop media projects and also experimenting with new forms of narrative online. Previously, he was editor of the 1996 website Bosnia: Uncertain Paths to Peace, nominated by the New York Times for a Pulitzer Prize in public service, and in 1994–95 he led a research project for the Times to create the first multimedia version of their daily newspaper. Ritchin has served as the picture editor of the New York Times Magazine, executive editor of Camera Arts, and founding director of the Photojournalism and Documentary Photography educational program at the International Center of Photography, New York. More recently, he cofounded the Writing with Light campaign for photographic integrity in the age of AI, and has curated numerous exhibitions and written for publications worldwide.