Ansel Adams trust condemns Danziger Gallery’s A.I.-colorized ‘perversion’

Ansel Adams’s trust condemned the Danziger Gallery for an inauthentic print of a photograph by the legendary photographer, colorized using artificial intelligence. The print was included in The Photography Show, held by the Association of International Photography Art Dealers last month.

“The trust did not authorize, endorse, consent to, or acquiesce in the ‘A.I.-generated color version’ of Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico exhibited and offered for sale by Danziger Gallery at The Photography Show presented by AIPAD in April,” the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust said in a statement to Instagram on Saturday.

Urgent Matter has reached out to Danziger Gallery for comment but did not receive a response by press time.

“This was a substantial editioned offering at a major international sales event. It exploited Ansel’s name, reputation, and his most iconic image, while failing to identify any human artist responsible for its creation,” the trust said.

The trust said it was not consulted or notified before the work appeared. After it was alerted, the trust contacted dealer James Danziger and asked for the work to be removed from the show.

But despite the formal notice, the trust alleged that Danziger doubled down and leveraged Ansel’s name and work while pursuing a proposed commercial A.I. colorization venture involving other artists’ estates.

“Ansel was an innovator who expanded the expressive and technical possibilities of his medium. He was remarkably prescient about—and excited by—the potential of computers to transform photography. The trust’s concerns are not about A.I. or creative experimentation in the abstract,” the trust said in its statement.

“This is fundamentally about artists’ rights and moral rights—and respect for human dignity. No one should trade on another person’s name, reputation, and labor for private commercial ends without consent and candor. The unauthorized exploitation of Ansel’s actively stewarded legacy reflects a gross failure of ethical and professional judgment.”

The trust added that it “will continue to address this matter through the appropriate channels,” though stopped short of announcing intent to pursue legal action over the dispute.

Pete Souza, the photojournalist best known for serving as the chief official White House photographer for President Barack Obama, was attached as a collaborator to the trust’s post. In a comment, Souza encouraged others to “please let your views be known.”

“I wholeheartedly agree that this is morally wrong and endangers the rights of all photographers,” he said.

David Hume Kennerly, a trustee, separately said he joined the trust’s two other trustees, Claudia Rice and Dr. John Schaefer, in condemning Danziger and “his perversion of Ansel’s work.”

“Ansel and I were friends, and I knew how he thought about many things,” Kennerly said. “He would have hated this rip-off of one of his most famous and revered photographs.”

Kennerly also noted that Danziger himself in 2012 wrote on his own blog that colorizing black and white photos was “weird and disrespectful.”

Some commenters suggested that Danziger was intentionally “testing the legal waters to see what they can get away with.”

On its website, Danziger Gallery listed the image as being A.I.-generated from the prompt: “Make a realistic color version of Ansel Adams’ iconic ‘Moonrise Over Hernandez.’”

It was proofed, regenerated and edited in Photoshop until finalized on April 26 and was printed by master printer Esteban Mauchi. The A.I. model used was not disclosed.

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