NAME :
David Raichman aka Dave the Preacher.
OCCUPATION :
Executive Creative Director at Ogilvy / AI Artist / Vision Architect.
WHERE WERE YOU BORN :
Paris.
WHERE DO YOU LIVE :
In the heart of Paris.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN SHOOTING PICTURES :
Almost 20 years.
WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR MOST MEMORABLE SHOOT :
The one I wasn’t directing myself, but collaborating with the great fashion photographer Txema Yeste.
We were working together on a fashion campaign for Accor Hotels. It was an intense six-day shoot,
the models were incredible, including Lil Buck and Mae Musk (yes, Elon’s mother).
A truly unforgettable experience.
WHAT PHOTOGRAPHERS INSPIRE YOU :
Many! William Eggleston, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Barry Talis, Elliott Erwitt,
and Richard Avedon.
IF YOU COULD SPEND A DAY WITH ANY PHOTOGRAPHER ALIVE OR DEAD WHO WOULD
YOU CHOOSE :
Elliott Erwitt, without a doubt.
WHAT IS YOUR CAMERA OF CHOICE :
Sony A7 (my main camera, often paired with Leica lenses), Fuji X100 (when I want to travel light),
and the Ricoh GR III (for tough street photography).
TELL US ABOUT YOUR AWESOME AI WORK :
My work is all about exploring the uncharted space between photography and AI. My first exhibition on
this theme took place in Paris in January 2023, it was a wild challenge. I trained models on over 3,000 of
my own photographs over two months. A large part of the dataset came from one of my long-term
obsessions: photographing people in the Paris metro, every day, for almost seven years.
At the time, training AI with such specificity was a complex and intense process, but the result was
something that truly transcended boundaries. It felt like my visual language pushed beyond the limits
of photography into something dreamlike, poetic, and unmistakably mine.
Over the last two years, I’ve been delving deeper into surrealism and visual poetry. Recently, I began
noticing a pattern in my metro work—people were no longer just commuters; they had become absorbed,
almost possessed, by their smartphones. That insight led me to create a special project called
Smart People—a powerful commentary on modern isolation. The series resonated deeply with viewers
and was recently exhibited at Cluster London.
WHEN DID YOU START CREATING IMAGERY WITH AI :
With a background in Applied Arts, Philosophy, and Computer Science, I’ve been working with
algorithms since the early 2000s. Back in 2008, for example, I helped develop one of the first AR glasses
experiences for the Arc de Triomphe.
Algorithms and later, the early stages of AI, have always been part of my creative toolkit. Even after
entering the advertising world, I kept pushing the boundaries of tech and creativity, using
Machine Learning to reinvent the tennis experience with Babolat, where we created the first connected
racket.
By early 2022, I became fascinated by diffusion theory, the idea that AI could generate entirely new
images from nothing. That concept of “hallucinated creation” instantly resonated with me, opening up
a new frontier of imagination and form.
WHICH DO YOU ENJOY THE MOST :
I would say Smart People, because it merges so many dimensions—craft, photography, storytelling,
critical thinking, and emotional impact.
DOES AI SCARE YOU IN ANY WAY :
Not really. What concerns me isn’t AI itself, but how people choose to use it. AI should be a tool for
genuine creation, not just replication. Too often, it’s used to mimic existing styles. Wes Anderson,
Studio Ghibli, and so on. While that can generate amusing pop culture moments, the output quickly
becomes repetitive. When AI is reduced to recycling aesthetics, it stops being innovative and starts
diluting artistic expression.
At the end of the day, this is computational intelligence, not emotional.
You can compute an image or a video, but you can’t compute the reason why someone captures that shot,
or creates that image, in that moment, in that way. That choice comes from a uniquely human
place—intuition, memory, emotion. And no matter how advanced the technology becomes, that simply
can’t be programmed.
IF YOU COULD PHOTOGRAPH ANYONE WHO WOULD IT BE :
Wow, that’s a tough question. Probably a hairdresser or barber in an Afro salon in NYC, and
I’m not kidding! The energy in those places is incredible. People come and go, stories flow, and
visually, it’s just so cinematic.
DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN 3 WORDS :
Obsessed. Thinker. Architect.
WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST MEMORY :
Probably a dream—or maybe a memory. I was around 3 or 4 years old, in the back of my parents’ car
at night, on our way to the south of France for the holidays. I remember looking out the window, seeing
a cloud lit by the moon, and saying, “Mum, I see a face… and she’s talking.”
WHAT WERE YOU LIKE AS A KID :
I was a bit of a lonely child, growing up in the 80s, and definitely a real geek. I spent my time playing
with computers, coding in BASIC, experimenting with synthesizers, and getting lost in video games.
From a very young age, I was creating with technology—recording music, and even making pixel art
music videos on my Amiga 500. Creativity and tech were already my playground.
WHAT IS YOUR MOST TREASURED POSSESSION :
An original edition from 1974 of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon.
WHO WOULD PLAY YOU IN A MOVIE :
Probably someone like Rami Malek—intense, introspective, a little offbeat. Or maybe an AI-generated
version of myself, directed by… me.
CHOOSE A SUPERPOWER :
Being a time traveler, seeing with my own eyes what no one else can even imagine.
WHAT IS YOUR WORST TRAIT :
Being completely immersed in myself, my work, and my obsessions. Everything else disappears.
Sometimes, I look up and realize that days and nights have passed without me even noticing.
WHAT KEEPS YOU AWAKE AT NIGHT :
The silence of the night—no one to disturb me. I can work for hours, deep into the early morning.
It always feels like there’s never enough time to create everything I envision.
WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT :
My son. I know it’s an emotional answer, but he’s 19 now and starting to become a music composer.
He’s already far beyond anything I could have hoped for. His creative potential is powerful,
and as a father, I’m incredibly proud to have passed on a thirst for creativity. There’s no greater legacy.
WHAT’S YOUR GUILTY PLEASURE :
Playing retro games on weird Chinese consoles. Total nostalgia meets beautiful dysfunction.
WHAT’S THE BEST THING YOU EVER STOLE :
When I was 14, I stole a cassette of Public Enemy, Fear of a Black Planet from a supermarket.
My parents thought the band was too violent, so of course, I had to hear it for myself. It turned out to
be one of the most amazing rap albums of all time.
YOU ARE HEADING TO THE ISS / INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION, CHOOSE 4
PEOPLE TO TAKE A LONG :
To have one of the deepest conversations above Earth, I’d take Emmanuel Kant, Albert Einstein, Stanley
Kubrick, and Virginia Woolf.
WHAT WOULD A PERFECT DAY FOR YOU LOOK LIKE :
A good lunch in Tokyo, wandering the streets, taking photos of people again and again. Then ending the
day listening to some great music, editing, transforming, and losing myself in the creative flow.
IF YOU COULD BE FRIENDS WITH A FICTIONAL CHARACTER, WHO WOULD IT BE :
The Genie of the Lamp from Aladdin. You probably know why… boundless power, great humor,
and infinite storytelling potential.
WHAT’S THE BEST PART OF YOUR JOB :
As a creative director, I love discovering new talent and helping them grow their ideas into something
amazing. It’s that human adventure, the collaboration, the mentoring, the shared vision,
that I enjoy the most.
ARE THERE DAYS YOU DO NOT WANT TO GO TO WORK :
Sometimes, especially after a long night of working nonstop. But even then, the drive to create
usually wins.
PICK YOUR TOP 5 MAGAZINES :
Artpress, Wired, Times, Nature, New Scientist.
WHAT IS THE LAST BOOK YOU READ :
The Artist in the Machine: The World of AI-Powered Creativity by Arthur I. Miller, written about six years
ago, but still incredibly relevant.
WHAT WAS THE LAST GIFT YOU GAVE SOMEONE :
I gave my son a vinyl of Pablo Honey by Radiohead. Sharing that analog warmth and raw emotion
felt like passing on a piece of my own musical DNA.
IF YOU HAD A BOAT WHAT WOULD IT BE CALLED :
Humanity.
YOUR MESSAGE :
What a journey it’s been since the invention of the hammer.
Across generations, we’ve created tools, passing down know-how and savoir-faire to build cathedrals,
engineer aircraft, and shape the world around us.
But now, we stand at a unique moment in history. We’ve created a single tool, Generative AI so
versatile it can design a life-saving molecule… or generate a cartoon version of yourself in
Studio Ghibli style.
And that’s precisely the paradox: this same tool can touch the sublime or the trivial in seconds.
I believe the greatest gift we can offer future generations isn’t just the tools themselves, but a thirst for
creativity. The spirit to feel empowered, no matter the medium, to build something meaningful.
Something bold. Something that reaches for an ideal.
