In partnership with
It’s Monday!
Hello, Curse and Coffee friends,
Today, we explore Robert Adams and his warnings about photography.
Hit reply and let us know what you think (we read all of your kind words).
Coffee at the ready…
The Big Sip
The take: Photographers spent 50 years ignoring Robert Adams' warning about spectacle, and now AI is making them listen.
What happened: The Phoblographer published an essay Saturday revisiting Adams' 1981 book Beauty in Photography, framing his lessons on slowness and authentic vision as an "antidote" to AI-generated imagery.
Why it matters: Two-thirds of Photoshop beta users now run generative AI daily. Instagram's head just declared the polished feed "dead." Adams' 50-year-old advice, ask "why" before "how," suddenly sounds less like philosophy and more like a survival strategy.
What to watch: Adobe's Project Moonlight, a cross-app AI assistant currently in private beta. If it ships, photographers who can't articulate why they shoot will be competing with software that doesn't need to ask.
Adams, 88, was an English professor who picked up a camera at 26. Never a gear head. His Paris exhibition closed last month, and suddenly, the guy who photographed tract housing and strip malls is having a moment. Fifty years of "dull and flat" are finally paying off.
Sponsor Break
Before we slurp into today’s brew…
Here are some wordies from today’s sponsor.
Hiring in 8 countries shouldn't require 8 different processes
This guide from Deel breaks down how to build one global hiring system. You’ll learn about assessment frameworks that scale, how to do headcount planning across regions, and even intake processes that work everywhere. As HR pros know, hiring in one country is hard enough. So let this free global hiring guide give you the tools you need to avoid global hiring headaches.