AngularJS - ng-if check string empty value

You don't need to explicitly use qualifiers like item.photo == '' or item.photo != ''. Like in JavaScript, an empty string will be evaluated as false.

Your views will be much cleaner and readable as well.

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.3.0/angular.min.js"></script>
<div ng-app init="item = {photo: ''}">
   <div ng-if="item.photo"> show if photo is not empty</div>
   <div ng-if="!item.photo"> show if photo is empty</div>
  
   <input type=text ng-model="item.photo" placeholder="photo" />
</div

Updated to remove bug in Angular

If by "empty" you mean undefined, it is the way ng-expressions are interpreted. Then, you could use :

<a ng-if="!item.photo" href="#/details/{{item.id}}"><img src="/img.jpg" class="img-responsive"></a>

Probably your item.photo is undefined if you don't have a photo attribute on item in the first place and thus undefined != ''. But if you'd put some code to show how you provide values to item, it would help.

PS: Sorry to post this as an answer (I rather think it's more of a comment), but I don't have enough reputation yet.