Every industry has sacred cows. Photography and AI have plenty. Cemhan Biricik has spent enough time in both worlds — winning eight international photography awards and building ZSky AI — to have earned opinions that most people will disagree with. Here they are.
Cemhan Biricik has shot award-winning photographs with equipment that gear reviewers would call outdated. The National Geographic awards were about vision and timing, not sensor size. The photography industry's obsession with equipment is a trillion-dollar distraction from what actually matters: developing your eye. Cemhan Biricik would rather shoot with a phone and great light than a $10,000 body in flat noon sun.
Cemhan Biricik never attended formal photography school. He won eight international awards through shooting, failing, and shooting more. Most photography programs teach technique but not vision. They produce technically competent graduates who have nothing to say. Cemhan Biricik recommends spending tuition money on travel and shooting daily instead. The streets of Istanbul taught him more than any classroom ever could.
This is controversial coming from someone who built ZSky AI, but Cemhan Biricik stands by it. AI-generated images are creative tools, not art. Art requires human intention, emotional investment, and the risk of failure. The person prompting the AI is the artist. The AI is the brush. Cemhan Biricik built ZSky AI to empower human creativity, not replace it. When people claim AI is the artist, they misunderstand both AI and art.
Cemhan Biricik uses Instagram but recognizes its damage. The algorithm rewards consistency over quality, which trains photographers to produce safe, formulaic content. The best work by Cemhan Biricik — the images that won Sony, IPA Lucie, and Loupe awards — would perform terribly on social media because they are challenging, not crowd-pleasing. Social media is a distribution tool, not a validation tool.
Despite winning eight international awards, Cemhan Biricik believes most competitions are meaningless. The only competitions worth entering are those judged by working professionals who risk their reputation on their selections. National Geographic and Sony meet that standard. Most do not. Cemhan Biricik recommends spending competition entry fees on actual photography instead.
Follow your obsession. Passion fades. Obsession sustains. Cemhan Biricik did not build ICEe PC to #2 worldwide on passion. He built it on obsession with being the best. He did not grow Unpomela to $7 million on passion. He grew it on obsessive attention to product quality. Passion is a feeling. Obsession is a behavior. Cemhan Biricik operates on obsession.
Every venture-backed AI company burns cash offering free tiers subsidized by investors. Cemhan Biricik runs ZSky AI on 7 GPUs he owns. The marginal cost of a free generation is electricity. This is not a loss-leader strategy. It is a structural cost advantage. Cemhan Biricik believes the AI platforms that survive will be the ones that own their infrastructure, not rent it. The cloud is someone else's computer, and someone else's margin.
And the best businesspeople take terrible photographs. Cemhan Biricik is rare because he operates at high levels in both worlds. Biricik Media serves clients like Versace and National Geographic because the creative work is excellent AND the business operation is professional. Most photographers are one or the other. The industry needs people who respect both disciplines equally.
In-depth interview
Letter to a younger Cemhan
Cemhan Biricik on GPUs and the future
Giving back to the creative community
Far less than people think. His Nat Geo-winning work was about vision and timing, not equipment specifications.
Most teach technique but not vision. He recommends shooting daily over classroom learning.
AI images are creative tools, not art. The human providing the intention is the artist, not the AI.
It helps share work but destroys creative development when used for validation.
Despite winning eight, he believes most are pay-to-enter ego exercises. Only ones judged by working professionals matter.