The Photo Brussels festival has embraced AI images by showcasing artists who use the controversial medium to tell stories in much the same way real photographers do.
The AImagine exhibtion held at Le Hangar photography space in Brussels, Belgium is part of the city-wide festival but will undoubtedly ruffles some purists’ feathers.
What photographic imagination can artificial intelligence offer us? What new creative and conceptual possibilities emerge from the fusion of photography and generative imagery? The AImagine exhibition brings together eighteen projects, six of which are the winners of the call for projects initiated by Hangar last June, with the theme: revisiting and reimagining historical events, characters, or situations through artificial intelligence. Through the strength of their proposals, these projects explore the boundaries of AI in photography at a time when art and technology blur the lines between fiction and reality. Hangar, in collaboration with Michel Poivert, presents a unique collective exhibition exploring the intersections between artificial intelligence and photography.
Altogether 18 exhibits are on display at Le Hangar, honoring a new wave of “promptography.” One such project is Cherry Airlines by Pascal Sgro in which a fictional airline has been invented that harks back to the 1950s.
Another project being shown is Une Histoire Paralelle. Created by Brodbeck and de Barbuat, the pair used Midjourney to recreate some of the world’s most famous photographs. Their exhibit is similar to when PetaPixel recreated some of the world’s most iconic photographs last year.
According to the Guardian, Brodbeck and de Barbuat use Midjourney to “highlight the flaws and prejudices in source data.” A reimagining of the famous Annie Leibovitz photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono shows the Beatle clothed and Yoko without clothes — this is despite repeated requests that Lennon should be naked like he was in the original picture. The presumption being the AI thinks it is more usual for women to be naked.
In another work, Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother is suffering from a classic case of iPhone face which might reflect Midjourney’s bias toward women who have had cosmetic work done.
Artist Alexey Yurenev used AI to fill in missing information about the role of his Russian grandfather in the Red Army during the Second World War. He uses image data sources to create machine-generated amalgamations of people and places. He then shows the images to surviving war veterans who were apparently triggered by the images and shared war stories with him.
Meanwhile, Robin Lopvet created a set of AI photographs purporting to show 20th-century New York that the Guardian says forces the question: “Can photography only literally describe the world? Or can we use imagination and fiction, like cinematic creations, to explain it?”
Another photographer exhibited is Michael Christopher Brown whose project 90 Miles explores historical Cuban events and the realities of Cubans attempting to cross the 90 miles of ocean that separates Havana from Florida.
Photo Brussels Festival runs until February 23 and it does feature photography made by cameras as well. For more info, head to the website.
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