Photographer and art director Silvia Badalotti has been shaping visual culture since 1995. Based in Milan, she has worked across still life and image consulting, collaborating with fashion brands, international magazines, and creative agencies. In 2021, she began exploring AI-generated images and video, delving deeper into the potential of artificial intelligence in visual language. A year ago, Silvia—who now proudly adds ‘prompt designer’ to her title—was invited by Marco De Vincenzo, creative director of Etro, to work on the brand’s “Nowhere” campaign, integrating AI into the creative process to unlock new expressive possibilities in fashion. More recently, she was asked to interpret the theme of Fuorisalone 2025, “Connected Worlds,” with a communication campaign generated using AI. In this interview, we explore her journey, the impact of AI on her work, and the challenges and opportunities it presents in design and photography.

Giulia Ossola: Let’s start with your journey—where did your passion for photography come from, and how did AI become part of your creative process?

Silvia Badalotti: I can say with certainty that photography has always been a way for me to observe the world. As a child, I would use small cardboard boxes, pretending they were cameras. It was probably more of a necessity for self-expression than just a passion! After a challenging school path, I finally pursued this profession, which I have been fully dedicated to for over thirty years.

In the 2000s, I embraced the shift from analog to digital photography with great enthusiasm. And in the last three years, I have approached AI with the same curiosity—seeing it as an extraordinary tool to bring to life everything I envision. I have found a balance between traditional photography and AI, maintaining my stylistic identity without falling into the aesthetic uniformity often associated with these technologies.

GO: Today, you define yourself as a “prompt designer.” What does that actually mean?

SB: A prompt designer is a professional who specializes in crafting and optimizing prompts—the instructions given to AI models to generate the desired outcomes. It’s like being a translator between human intention and the way AI can fulfill those needs.

It requires the ability to formulate precise, structured instructions that guide AI towards a specific output—whether through constraints, parameters, or contextual refinements. It’s a role that blends technical expertise with creativity and a deep understanding of language.

For me, the key is designing prompts that align as closely as possible with my visual language, avoiding the standardized aesthetics AI tends to generate. Knowledge of artistic, literary, and cinematic references is crucial in achieving nuanced results that truly reflect one’s personal style.

GO: AI is increasingly shaping visual design. Where do you see the intersection between AI, art, and photography? Do you think AI can be considered a form of art, or is it merely a tool to enhance human creativity?

SB: This is a fascinating question, touching on the heart of contemporary debates about art in the digital age. The key is recognizing that the human element remains central: the artist directs AI, decides what to generate, selects and refines results, and injects meaning into the work. AI amplifies creative possibilities but doesn’t replace artistic vision. Machine learning is redefining the boundaries between human and computational creation. In visual design and photography, AI operates on multiple levels. It serves as a powerful tool, improving technical aspects like color correction, retouching, and upscaling, while also enabling rapid creative exploration and streamlining post-production. At the same time, it acts as a creative collaborator, suggesting alternative compositions, generating stylistic variations, and visualizing concepts before execution—sometimes in unexpected ways. Personally, I see AI as a new artistic medium rather than just a tool. Photography was initially dismissed as “not real art” because it relied on a machine—AI is going through a similar process of artistic acceptance today.

GO: What are the biggest limitations of AI-driven design and photography?

SB: One major issue is uniformity. I’m obsessed with avoiding this, and my daily challenge is pushing AI beyond its default outputs to achieve originality. Writing effective prompts is crucial, and only a strong cultural background allows you to break away from AI’s pre-set aesthetic, which personally, I find too restrictive.

GO: In your work, how do you address authorship when AI is involved? Who is the creator when an image is AI-generated?

SB: This is a crucial topic—both legally and ethically. From a creative perspective, the artist defines the initial concept, writes and refines prompts, curates and edits the results, and places the work within a broader artistic discourse. From a technical standpoint, AI is trained on datasets from past works, recombining and interpreting them mathematically. The final output is influenced by the model’s parameters and the human input guiding it. From a legal standpoint, many jurisdictions don’t grant copyright to AI-generated works unless there is significant human intervention. It remains a gray area, as laws are still evolving to accommodate this new form of creativity. In my view, authorship should be proportional to the human contribution. If an artist uses AI as a tool within their creative process—actively shaping the outcome—they should be recognized as the author. However, transparency about AI’s role is essential, as is acknowledging the artists whose works contributed to AI training datasets.

GO: What’s next for the relationship between AI and photography? How do you see AI influencing or preserving analog photography, which carries such an emotional and sensory depth?

SB: I have a strong suspicion that AI will soon replace traditional photography for technical and routine jobs.
But when it comes to artistic, research-driven, and personally creative photography, it remains a personal choice. I know incredible photographers who still work exclusively with film today and continue to express themselves authentically. Rather than replacing traditional photography, AI will complement it—preserving its essence while making it more accessible and open to experimentation.

GO: Tell us about the campaign you created for Fuorisalone, interpreting the theme “Connected Worlds.”

SB: When I first received this year’s Fuorisalone theme, I realized it would be broad and complex. My approach focused on constructing images that invite reflection on different dimensions of human existence—bridging philosophy, culture, and technology. The idea of interwoven worlds led me to explore the nuances of human relationships and how our lives are interconnected in a shared network of experiences.
I created three interconnected images, forming a cycle where each element is essential to the survival of the others:

The Human Element—A portrait of an Asian woman with a striking blue eye represents the universality of human existence beyond ethnicity and culture. This face becomes a symbol of humanity’s role in shaping both nature and technology while bearing the consequences of its actions.

Nature—An image of a bee and its hive symbolizes the fragility and strength of the natural world. Bees are crucial to biodiversity; they serve as a reminder that disrupting nature breaks the life cycle and threatens our ecosystem.

Technology—A tangled mass of cables and circuits represents technological advancement—connecting the world and unlocking infinite possibilities. Yet, if misused, it can become destructive.
These three images come together in a circular narrative. The cycle is key: humanity creates technology, technology impacts nature, and damage to nature inevitably affects humanity. It’s a call for balance—to harmonize innovation, environmental respect, and awareness of our role in the world.