I’ve been working on my big hair style and primping eyelashes. Getting myself geared up and ready for a little boot scootin’ and trucking down the main streets of Music City, USA!  Yes, we’re goin’ to Nashville, Tennessee!

What’s up you ask, do I suddenly have an affinity for biscuits and gravy and country music? As it happens, Nashville is the host city for Imaging USA for their 2026 expo and conference. As a member and certified professional through Professional Photographers of America (PPA), the host organization for Imaging USA, I will be attending the 2026 photography conference in Nashville. How do you like that?  

Imaging USA has been hosted by PPA since the first conference was held August 23-26, 1880 in Chicago, IL. Making Imaging USA the longest-running national photographic conference and image exhibition in the United States. PPA is a non-profit association that was founded in 1868, about 45 years after the invention of the camera.

All that to say, I really am looking forward to learning new things and meeting new friends, listening to music and trying out the Southern cuisine. Nashville. The Grand Ole Opry.  Music City, USA.   

UPDATE – how it went

In Nashville, at Imaging USA, much like Portrait Masters I attended in Phoenix in 2019, there were presentations and then opportunities to work with models and lighting.  Imaging USA seemed more “color lights” focused for the exhibitors.  Not just gels but taking advantage of LED light sources with multiple colors of light settings. Red, blue, orange, green, yellow as well as the traditional tungsten, warm and daylight options.  Many booths offering so many options of lighting and modifiers.  The education presenters (like Lindsay Adler shown in the gallery below) have endorsements with lighting companies (mainly Profoto or Westcott brands). Presenters made sure to mention the brand they were endorsing an showcase it in their presentation. Lighting products have been produced and named for these educators specifically for their endorsement. This gave the education presentations an uncomfortable feel of being a pitch through the hour long demonstrations. Also included in every presentation was a pitch for the conferences largest sponsor,  Evoto, and AI editing product.

The disappointment was felt by 70% of the people I spoke to personally.

Here we are with PPA, an organization for photographers and they were (selling out) promoting AI to which the only phrase to support the reasoning was, “well, It’s here.” 

What is the risk vs benefit to this? Comparing AI to horse vs car is not accurate. Uber Vs. Cab I think would be. Grocery self check out would be. What has the risk vs benefit been on a generation using smart phones or social media? Sure, it’s here but there are decent reasons to avoid it. Just like there have been reasons not to use atomic energy. 

Is AI a fad when it comes to art? It feels like an Emporer’s New Clothes story, where anyone who might benefit financially by promoting it, won’t call it out.  Yet, photography does go through lots of fads, it always has because it follows culture and styles.  The color lights, artificial sets and transformed humans, these will tire I assume and hopefully real humans will want authenticity to make a come back. I believe classic is always in style.