Laura Rautjoki on Photography, AI and the Value of Process

Laura Rautjoki has been featured in Kaleva, a major regional newspaper based in Oulu, Northern Finland. The feature explores the renewed interest in analogue film photography at a time when AI can generate visually similar imagery within seconds. It brings together the perspectives of two professional film photographers from Oulu and Rautjoki’s own perspective as a photographer, visual artist and AI image specialist.

The film photographers emphasise the physical process, lived experience and craftsmanship behind analogue photography. The article therefore asks whether the value of an image lies only in its final appearance, or also in the process and experience through which it is created.

Rautjoki’s contribution focuses on how generative AI is changing commercial image production and creating new possibilities for visual professionals, while also raising difficult questions about employment, authorship and changing production roles. The article makes clear that she is describing this shift rather than celebrating the replacement of photographers and other creative professionals.

She also discusses how photographers’ existing visual knowledge can be a significant advantage when working with AI. There are still relatively few practitioners who combine technological understanding with a strong aesthetic vision.

Rautjoki’s perspective forms a substantial part of the article, which also includes a section on her artistic practice and features two of her works: They Know Me I (2024) and Eden (2026).

To read the full article in Finnish, click the link below.

Laura Rautjoki, They Know Me, 2024.