Hans Purwa, a creative technologist and senior retoucher at INK, sees AI not as a replacement for creativity but as another tool in a long line of technical evolutions. With a background spanning darkroom printing, Photoshop mastery, and high-end image-making for fashion and advertising, Purwa argues that the core skill remains unchanged: understanding the image and the concept behind it.
For Purwa, the transition into AI mirrors his earlier shift from the darkroom to digital. He learned to print under masters like Jim Margaree, who worked for photographers Annie Leibovitz and James Nachtwey. That physical process shaped his eye. When Photoshop arrived, the challenge was recreating that darkroom quality on screen. AI presents the same type of hurdle.
"There is a lot of trial and error. You fight with it, learn how to control it, understand where it fails, and slowly figure out how to make it work for you," Purwa said. "But I've realised that the most important skill isn't writing the perfect prompt. It's understanding the image."
Assisting, not replacing
INK has drawn a clear ethical line by training its own internal models using Loras. The studio works exclusively with its own IP to generate specific looks and outcomes. Purwa emphasized that the word "assisting" is central to the workflow. Any likeness, product, or aesthetic element remains genuine and cannot be replaced by generated content.
This approach addresses the friction that often arises when clients see what AI can produce and assume anything is possible. Purwa said communicating a tool's boundaries is now as important as knowing how to operate it. When working with real people, real products, and an artist's existing work, those boundaries are non-negotiable.
From technician to creative partner
Purwa pointed to darkroom compositing pioneer Jerry Uelsmann as a lasting influence. The technical difficulty of Uelsmann's work disappeared into the final image. What remained was composition and vision. Purwa applies that standard to his AI work today, collaborating with artists like Camille Summers Valli and Charlie Engman.
"My role is to understand what they're trying to see, contribute creatively to that process, and figure out how these new tools can help bring their vision into reality," he said. This shifts the retoucher's function from pure execution toward active participation in the AI for Creatives process. The technology becomes a medium between idea and final image, not a shortcut.
The skill that won't change
Purwa drew a personal parallel to explain his view of technology's role. A transplant patient, he spent five years on dialysis, where a machine kept him alive until surgery. The machine was never the destination - it was a tool to get there. He sees AI functioning the same way in creative work.
In the next three to five years, he expects AI to integrate into creative workflows as deeply as Photoshop did. The question is not whether the technology can replace human output, but how professionals use it with intention. The vision, judgment, and final creative call still belong to the person behind the tool. For photographers and retouchers navigating this shift, structured guidance like an AI Learning Path for Photographers can help build that intentional control.
Why this matters for creatives
Purwa's experience confirms that technical fluency alone does not produce compelling work. The tool changes - darkroom, Photoshop, generative AI - but the ability to see and execute an idea does not come from the tool itself. For working creatives, the takeaway is direct: invest as much in visual judgment and conceptual thinking as in learning new software. The prompt is secondary. Knowing what you want the image to be is what drives the output.
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