Digital Fashion Photography and Generative AI: Understanding Student Perceptions, Learning Experiences, and Creative Development at NIFT Bengaluru

This qualitative research study investigates how students at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Bengaluru engage with Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the context of digital fashion photography education. As AI tools such as Midjourney, DALL-E 3, Adobe Firefly, and Stable Diffusion are increasingly integrated into fashion media learning environments, critical questions arise around how students perceive these technologies, how they influence creative development, and what pedagogical and ethical tensions emerge in the classroom. The study employed a qualitative research design, drawing on in-depth semi-structured interviews and open-ended questionnaires administered to a purposively selected sample of 42 students enrolled in undergraduate and postgraduate fashion communication and photography programmes at NIFT Bengaluru. Data were collected over a ten-week period (February–April 2026) and analysed using thematic analysis guided by Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-phase framework. Four principal themes emerged from the data: (i) AI as a creative scaffold—students described generative AI primarily as a tool for concept visualisation and ideation rather than final output generation; (ii) tension between technological enthusiasm and creative authenticity—many participants expressed ambivalence about AI’s impact on their identity as photographers; (iii) pedagogical gaps in AI literacy—students reported a lack of structured institutional guidance on the ethical and technical dimensions of AI use; and (iv) cultural and representational concerns—participants frequently highlighted the inadequacy of AI-generated imagery in reflecting South Indian and broader Indian aesthetic identities. The findings underscore the need for AI-integrated, critically reflective fashion photography curricula at NIFT Bengaluru, and contribute original qualitative evidence to the growing scholarly discourse on AI-mediated creativity in fashion education.