Photography Never Lies exhibition interrogates truth in AI-generated imagery at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre

Photography Never Lies, a group exhibition at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre from 30 May to 8 September, confronts contemporary debates about photographic authenticity through AI-generated works. Curated by Akkara Naktamna, the show features 13 artists whose pieces challenge the medium's traditional relationship with reality. German photographer Boris Eldagsen's AI-generated image The Electrician (2022), which won and was declined from the 2023 Sony World Photography Award, anchors the exhibition. Eldagsen's Pseudomnesia series, created using OpenAI's DALL-E 2, presents 19 disquieting images that question distinctions between photography and AI-generated imagery. Greek artist Ioanna Sakellaraki contributes The Seven Circuits of a Pearl (2023), mixed-media prints exploring maritime themes through family archives. Napasraphee Apaiwong's Resonances of the Concealed (2023) presents dreamlike sci-fi images of East Asian figures, while Patrik Budenz and Birte Zellentin's macht (2023) digitally layers portraits of world leaders from 1921 to 2021. Leslie Shang Zhefeng's Cypress Slope (2020) documents four generations of family history in northwest China, facing Maria Mavropoulou's Imagined Images (2022–23), AI-generated family photos based on relatives' memories. The exhibition deliberately obscures technical distinctions between AI and traditional photography, inviting viewers to question whether AI imagery can perform photography's biographical functions.