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Generative AI in Documentary Photography: Exploring Opportunities and Challenges for Visual Storytelling

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Paper presented at CHI2025 in Yokohama, Japan.

Abstract

Generative AI is increasingly used to create images from text, but its role in documentary photography remains under-explored. This paper investigates how generative AI can be integrated into documentary practice while maintaining ethical standards. Through interviews with six documentary photographers, we explored their views on AI’s potential to support community-driven storytelling. While AI presents opportunities for creative expression and community involvement, concerns about trust, authenticity, and decontextualization of images persist. Photographers expressed doubts about AI’s ability to accurately represent lived experiences, fearing it could compromise narrative integrity. Our findings suggest that AI tools should be designed to enhance collaboration and transparency in storytelling, complementing rather than replacing traditional documentary methods. This study contributes to the ongoing discourse on AI in photography, advocating for the development of tools that preserve the ethical foundations of documentary storytelling while empowering communities.

Airport Photos

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Airport Photos is a short story about a country that does not allow individuals to make pictures with cameras. Instead, all visuals must be generated using a singular, government-approved image generation model. This short story was submitted to the HCI Design Stories workshop at the CHI 2025 conference in Yokohama, Japan.

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Interactions Magazine 2043

Sun, 01 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

As part of the 2023 Design and AI Symposium at TU Delft, I participated in a workshop where we created a speculative copy of the Interactions Magazine exploring our fears and dreams around AI fever.

For this speculative magazine, I worked on a story about the effects of tampering with model abilities when they are widespread in society. The article was written by Arganka Yahya and myself, using ChatGPT for formatting and connecting details.

Women Photograph Database

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Women Photograph is a non-profit that maintains a database of more than 1,400 independent women* and nonbinary visual journalists from around the world. As part of their website relaunch, I redesigned and developed an interactive version of their database for their homepage. Visitors can filter across various categories, such as Region, Race/Ethnicity, and Skills, in addition to searching by name. The order of photographers shown is randomized each time the page loads.

CV

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

My full CV is coming soon.

Teaching

Instructor / Co-Instructor

Practical Sessions (TP) on Vue.js. Sorbonne Université, Spring 2026.
Prototyping Speculative AI Interactions Summer School. Politecnico di Torino, Summer 2024.
Analyzing and Visualizing Conversations. Hochschule München, Spring 2024.
Your Home Online: Making a Portfolio Website Workshop. TU Delft, Fall 2022; Spring 2023; Spring 2024.
Web Lab. University of Miami, Fall 2019; Spring 2020; Fall 2020; Spring 2021; Summer 2021.
Advanced Infographics & Data Visualization. University of Miami, Fall 2020; Spring 2021.
Frontend Fundamentals. University of Miami, Fall 2020; Spring 2021.
Storytelling with Data. University of Miami, Fall 2019; Spring 2020; Fall 2020; Spring 2021.
Infographics & Data Visualization. University of Miami, Fall 2020.

Teaching Assistant

Interactive Technology Design. TU Delft, Spring 2023.
Design Theory and Methodology. TU Delft, Fall 2022.
eHealth. TU Delft, Spring 2022.
Product Engineering Processes. MIT, Fall 2018.
Documentary Photography/Photo Journalism - Still Images of a World In Motion. MIT, Spring 2017.
Engineering Innovation and Design. MIT, Fall 2015.

Service

Reviewer

ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI). 2026.
Human-Computer Interaction Journal. 2026.
ACM Creativity & Cognition (C&C). 2026.
ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS). 2025–2026.
ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). 2025.

Student Volunteer

Computational Interaction Summer School. 2025.
Workshop on Human-Centred AI (HCAI). 2025.
ACM Conference on Conversational User Interfaces (CUI). 2023.
TU Delft Design & AI Symposium: Shaping the future(s). 2023.
DCODE Summer School: Design for entangled interactions. 2022.
TU Delft Design for AI Symposium. 2022.

Awards & Fellowships

Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in College Journalism. Hate in America, 2019.
Student Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Digital Reporting. Hate in America, 2019.
Carnegie-Knight News21 Fellowship. Hate in America, 2018.
Visual Communications Department Prize in Immersive Media. Syracuse University, 2018.