Photographer/Photo-journalist Kim Raff is the photograher, I doubt that she did that, there's never been any evidence of her doing that in the past. The photos just look like good photos to me.
Am I crazy is this placement in NYT have a lot of AI added in people in it (hands and feet). I don't know why I would expect there placed article group to be better but this seems like a company trying to jump the cold-start demand by adding in people.