At the Aipad Photography Show in April, gallerist James Danziger presented and sold a colorized version of Ansel Adams's iconic black-and-white photograph "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico" (1941), generated using artificial intelligence. The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust and many in the photography community condemned the move, while Danziger defended it on the grounds that the image is in the public domain.
The controversy highlights deeper tensions in the art market beyond a simple rejection of AI. Danziger's actions raise questions about intellectual property, the ethics of altering canonical works, and the commercialization of public-domain images. The incident reflects a broader erosion of established codes of conduct in the art world, where technological and legal loopholes are increasingly exploited for profit.