ssense lays off most of visuals department to replace with ai, former photographer alleges

as fashion retailer ssense continues to struggle financially, a photographer formerly employed by the company reports most of their team was laid off and that their work will be replaced with ai-generated images. the layoffs come as the troubled company, which entered bankruptcy protection last summer, continues to lose money. since last year, ssense, once a giant in fashion e-commerce and valued at $5 billion in 2021, has laid off more than 300 employees. in may, a judge extended the company's protection from its creditors until september as it continues to go through a court-supervised restructuring process. last monday, the company’s visual production department, composed of about a dozen photographers, retouchers, and makeup artists, was nearly entirely laid off and will largely be replaced with artificial intelligence-based imagery, according to the former ssense photographer. the photographer, who spoke to the gazette on the condition they not be named, said the last ones left standing in the department are the stylists, who will take basic photos of the models.“ai is going to take the image of a garment that's on a mannequin, and then superimpose that with the information of the model. (ssense is) more paying for the model’s image rights. the model doesn't need to be there for the full day.”until now, shooting one clothing collection would involve a full day’s work with a model, a photographer, a stylist and a makeup artist, they explained.the photographer said news of the layoffs came very suddenly. “the meeting's about three minutes long. they just say, due to the nature of how well the ai that they've been testing has performed, and the fact that it's surpassed their expectations and the speed of the quality of the images they're generating, they're letting go of the photography, retouching, and makeup teams.”asked whether the layoffs are due to ai, ssense did not deny the allegation or explicitly confirm if it plans to adopt ai, but said it is combining “new technologies” into its approach. “ssense is evolving our studio operating model to increase agility, accelerate content production, and further strengthen the product storytelling that defines the brand,” a company spokesperson wrote in an email statement. “this evolution builds on our long-standing approach of combining our creative expertise, editorial perspective with continuous innovation and new technologies.”“as part of this transition, a number of studio roles are impacted,” the statement continues. “we are grateful for the contributions of our departing colleagues, whose work has helped shape the ssense brand identity.” in an email sent to employees in early june, reviewed by the gazette, the company wrote that they are building an “ai-native operating platform where ai is embedded in how we work every day.”“ai is here to augment our work, reduce the tedious parts and help us focus on higher-value activities, enabling our teams to apply their expertise, judgment, and creativity in even more impactful ways.” 

a widespread industry crisis

with more fashion brands turning to ai images to save on overhead, an existential crisis looms for many models, fashion photographers and makeup artists as the future of their creative careers comes into question.last month, canadian fashion retailer suzy shier faced intense backlash upon publishing an ai-generated campaign of their summer collection. the instagram ad, which has since been deleted from the company’s page, signalled that the long-standing threats of ai replacing creative professionals are coming true in the fashion world.“it just makes me want to push back in my own practice,” the former ssense photographer said. “there is a sort of uncanny valley to a lot of the ai imagery, as good as it might be, i think also people, even if they know it looks good, i feel like there's a sense of duplicitousness about the whole thing.”a canadian freelance makeup artist who has lost contracts to ai, kim creton, says even if ai images are convincing, they can never match the value or honesty of a photograph.“it takes away from how the garment, or the item, actually fits on a human,” said creton, who has freelanced for ssense in the past. “especially if brands aren't stating that it's ai, like, why are we omitting this information? there's clearly some unspoken shame about it. because otherwise people would say it loud and proud.”both the photographer and creton expressed frustration that their hard work over several years is being used to train the ai that is replacing their jobs.“there's no sense of copyright or this or that, it's just everything is sponged up into this machine,” the photographer said. “the public was never consulted, or there was never a referendum on any of this stuff. we're constantly told, ‘oh, this is just the way of the world, this is inevitable, nothing we can do about it,’ but these are generally the heads of companies, these are generally tech ceos that are spreading this gospel.”