Can a picture made with AI prompts hang next to work shot on a camera? A photography gallery in Belfast just found out how loudly people will answer that question. Belfast Exposed, which bills itself as “Northern Ireland’s premier photography organization,” is hosting an exhibition titled ‘Beneath the Surface’ — and one of its featured works has turned into a lightning rod.
The piece is called Galatea, created by 47-year-old artist Jonny Sheridan, originally from Dublin. It’s described as an “AI-based photographic work depicting a failed near future romance between a man and his robotic AI girlfriend.” Sheridan says the series interrogates the perils of the technology itself, asking “whether AI compounds misogyny or if it merely reflects it.”
The project draws on the Greek myth of Pygmalion — the Cyprian sculptor who scorned real women, carved an ideal one from ivory, then fell hopelessly in love with his own creation. It’s a fitting reference point for images of a man and his synthetic partner, and Sheridan insists the results were anything but automatic.
“It took far more than pressing a button,” he told the Belfast Telegraph. “Each scene began with an idea and went through rounds of prompting, rejection, and revision.” He says composition, background, character development, lighting, style and symbolism were all considered and reworked, with the work addressing concerns about AI alignment with human values, the impact on employment, and fears about the end of humanity.
Not everyone is convinced by the concept. Sheridan’s Galatea was shown alongside eight other Master’s graduates from Ulster University, and critics argue that placing generated imagery beside camera-made photographs is a category error at best.
- “The fact that this AI slop sits alongside real works by actual photographers is a complete insult to the artists and to the audience,” wrote one visitor named Chris on Instagram.
- One photographer told the Belfast Telegraph there should be a flat “no AI” policy, calling the technology’s use “unethical.”
- Belfast-based photographer Brendan Harkin was more measured: “There was an idea there that Sheridan had, and rather than using the skill and creativity of photography, he opted to use AI. It’s a shame because this has become the story about it.”
Belfast Exposed is standing by the show. The gallery points to its “long-standing partnership with Ulster University to present the annual MFA Photography exhibition,” which gives emerging artists a professional venue for their work. Its stated role, it says, is “to provide a platform for contemporary photography, critical thinking and creative dialogue, while supporting the next generation of photographic talent.”
That’s the crux of it. Sheridan’s images are literally about the dangers of AI — yet the medium has become the message, drowning out the critique. Whether that’s irony or self-fulfilling prophecy is now a matter of heated debate in Belfast.
