¶Getty Images is going private through bankruptcy. The headline sounds grim, but the details are actually encouraging, to me, and reveal the importance of a developing theme in photography: reality.

¶Getty's business is pulling in two opposite directions.

¶On one side, Getty's iStock business is struggling, apparently due to the growth of generative AI, the relative ease with which decent stock-like imagery can be created, and the shrinking cost of making them:

¶The company disclosed in an investor presentation on Monday that its iStock eCommerce business has seen “declining agency demand and disruption,” presumably due to the rapid adoption of AI tools and products that have made stock image creation easy.

¶That makes sense. If what you need is a smiling team around a conference table, or a sunset over a generic beach, several generative AI tools are available that can produce a decent image in response to relatively generic prompts in a matter of seconds. No part of that picture reflects a reality, which is fine in situations where reality, frankly, doesn't matter.

¶Importantly, though, Getty sees growth potential in the side of its business that expressly deals in reality:

¶Yet Getty projects growth in its core editorial image unit, forecasting that the division that’s powered by news images (i.e., real photos of actual events that have occurred), will grow from $369 million to $400 million by 2029.

¶It's a modest projection, for sure, but it's growth nonetheless. And, when set against the decline at iStock, it's a telling contrast. A generated image can imitate how a place or an event looks, but it cannot convey a reality that actually happened. Only a photograph made in a particular location at a particular time can do that. Automated photography can make such photos (think traffic cameras, etc.), but human photographers bring an interpretative angle backed by trust. Reality backed by trust is the product editorial customers seek, and that is likely why Getty sees growth.

¶This, incidentally, is the premise behind Reality Framed. Photographs of real people, places, and events matter because they reflect a reality that actually occurred. As AI imagery gets cheaper and harder to distinguish from the real thing, a photograph made by a trustworthy photographer will matter more, and will become more valuable.

¶It also fits with Getty's decision in July to walk away from its Shutterstock merger rather than divest Shutterstock's editorial business.