The New York Times Friday January 9, 2026
While the Nieman Lab shared predictions for journalism in 2026 (see item 1), The New York Times has some thoughts about what lay in store for life in general in the year ahead, including the rise of dumb phones as status symbols and a growing popularity for old-fashioned pipe smoking. We will also be seeing a war on AI slop. “A.I. might be trained on human art, but it has its own house style: slick, almost too polished, bumps retouched, like a smooth-talking car salesman,” notes The Times. Read the full Story >>
PetaPixel Friday January 9, 2026
It is notoriously difficult to fix a broken film camera; the vintage technology requires knowledge, experience, and perhaps most importantly, spare parts. The people who repair cameras tend to skew older, and, as a result, many are now looking at retiring, notes PetaPixel. This comes at a time when analog photography is experiencing a renaissance that has seen younger people embrace film and all its quirks and aesthetic pleasures. After the generation of camera repairers who worked through the 1970s and 1980s retires, who will repair the gear? Read the full Story >>
DIYPhotography Friday January 9, 2026
Over the last year, updates and new releases brought AI photo editing capabilities into mainstream editing that were once confined to research labs or niche applications. These developments, notes DIY Photography, are changing expectations for what photo editing software can do, giving users powerful assistance while also inviting discussions about ethics, control, and creative authorship. The new era of assisted editing includes tools such as subject selection and masking and intelligent noise reduction. Read the full Story >>
ARTnews Friday January 9, 2026
Countless artists have immigrated from countries around the world to the U.S., but the process of applying for an O-1B visa, for those with extraordinary ability in sciences, arts, education, business, athletics, or the motion picture/television industry, is notoriously difficult and expensive. Lately, notes the Financial Times, influencers and OnlyFans models have been dominating the ‘extraordinary’ artist visa procedure. Those applicants are able offer concrete online metrics of achievement, notes Art News. Read the full Story >>
