Part Four of the Visual Essay Series, with All Original Art
I am excited to present the fourth installment of the AI Ways of Seeing medium.com series, which is exploring art somewhat in the iconoclastic tradition of the great book by John Berger, Ways of Seeing (1972, Penguin Books). This book was hugely influential in my intellectual and creative development.
In it, Berger provides essays in words, but also visual essays. Like those, this one is a visual essay. You are requested to look and see, but not think too much. Experience.
Before we get going here, you might like to see the previous essay in the series:
Robert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer who created an important body of work in the New York scene in the late 1970s-80s and died in 1989.
This is the first photographer in the series. I prefer the abstraction of paint and had some concerns about attempting a photo-realistic style with AI.
We know that Mapplethorpe was in the habit of initially taking Polaroid instant photos of a scene to see if it was working, and then once satisfied, turning to a Hasselblad medium format camera. For those unfamiliar with Polaroid because you are too young to have had the joy of it, you can read some details on the process here.
We can’t reproduce this workflow exactly, but I have created some images in the style of what I imagine would look like Mapplethorpe polaroids. At the end I also have some higher resolution efforts including a faux self-portrait.
“Steve”
Figure 1 Homage Robert Mapplethorpe, “Steve test shots”, Digital/Algorithmic, 512x640px, Serial Number: various
“Tyrone”
Figure 2 Homage Robert Mapplethorpe, “Tyrone test shots”, Digital/Algorithmic, 512x640px, Serial Number: various
“Anya”
Figure 3 Homage Robert Mapplethorpe, “Anya test shots”, Digital/Algorithmic, 512x640px, Serial Number: various
“Marcus”
Figure 4 Homage Robert Mapplethorpe, “Marcus test shots”, Digital/Algorithmic, 512x640px, Serial Number: various
Larger Scale Works
Figure 5 Homage Robert Mapplethorpe, Human Body as a Landscape #1, Digital/Algorithmic, 1472x1472px, Serial Number 00027–1127762766
Figure 6 Homage Robert Mapplethorpe, Human Body as a Landscape #2, Digital/Algorithmic, 1472x1472px, Serial Number 00028–474873065
Figure 7 Homage Robert Mapplethorpe, Human Body as a Landscape #3, Digital/Algorithmic, 1472x1472px, Serial Number 00035–2266057361
Figure 8 Homage Robert Mapplethorpe, Face, Digital/Algorithmic, 1472x1472px, Serial Number 00035–2266057361, Serial Number 00040–308537227
Figure 9 Homage Robert Mapplethorpe, Portrait of a Child, Digital/Algorithmic, 1472x1472px, Serial Number 00041–448037813
Figure 10 Homage Robert Mapplethorpe, Orchids, Digital/Algorithmic, 1472x1472px, Serial Number 00043–29119860
Figure 11 Homage Robert Mapplethorpe, Orchids, Digital/Algorithmic, 1472x1472px, Serial Number 00042–3725644706
Figure 12 Homage Robert Mapplethorpe, Ikebana, Digital/Algorithmic, 1472x1472px, Serial Number 00031–1192022760
Figure 13 Homage Robert Mapplethorpe, Ikebana, Digital/Algorithmic, 1472x1472px, Serial Number 00030–1321378186
Figure 14 Homage Robert Mapplethorpe, Ikebana, Digital/Algorithmic, 1472x1472px, Serial Number 00033–1549394944
Figure 15 Homage Robert Mapplethorpe, “Portrait, Beth”, Digital/Algorithmic, 2048x2048px, Serial Number: 058113f9–0b85–478f-b177-a2a69b3b8b61
Figure 16 Homage Robert Mapplethorpe, “Portrait, Julia”, Digital/Algorithmic, 2048x2048px, Serial Number: fd57a8e8-d59d-4ab7–90f7–3c48296c0fd8
Figure 17 Homage Robert Mapplethorpe, “Self Portrait”, Digital/Algorithmic, 2048x2048px, Serial Number: cd3c4365–4eac-4b7a-ac85–32d41fa4b319
That’s all for now. For our next essay we will take on a post-Modernist, Barbara Kruger.
If you liked this story, then you might also like to learn about my Spaceship Earth AI Project:
