Let’s dive into this exciting journey where technology meets art, where pixels meet perceptions. Two hours—that’s all it took for me to venture into the world of AI art, specifically focusing on street photography. Yeah, you heard it right, just a couple of hours with my computer, some know-how in machine learning, and a service called Midjourney.
So what’s the big deal with AI art? Well, it’s the amalgamation of artificial intelligence and artistic vision. Algorithms and models like GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks) and Style Transfer are doing wonders. You feed these algorithms hundreds or thousands of images, and they learn to generate new ones. Think of it as teaching a kid to paint by showing them various artworks, except this kid can process a gallery’s worth of art in seconds. But let’s not get too deep into the technical weeds; this isn’t a machine learning lecture, after all.
The more fascinating aspect to me is the balance between uniqueness and replication. AI has this incredible ability to mimic styles and patterns, but can it create something genuinely unique? Or is it just a reflection of the data it was trained on? You see, I chose street photography as my subject. To get this project off the ground, I decided to do a bit of “photography” myself. Except, I didn’t actually hit the streets; instead, I used Midjourney, coupled with some Photoshopping magic.
Ah, the ethics of it all—a debate as old as, well, the first AI-generated art. I referenced the styles of other photographers. Is it homage, or is it a breach of artistic etiquette? The lines are blurred, much like some of the backgrounds in my AI-generated photographs.
Let’s talk about those photographs, shall we? I could have gotten even better results with more nuanced prompts. After all, the way you instruct these algorithms can be as vital as the algorithms themselves. I found myself awash in hundreds of variations, each one a unique blend of pixels and machine “imagination.”
But here’s the kicker: the people in my street photography? They don’t exist. They’re figments of an algorithm’s imagination. It’s both remarkable and a tad unsettling, don’t you think? This blurring line between reality and artificiality got me thinking: is the prompt more important than the image? I mean, these images are beautiful, but have they lost their essence because the people in them aren’t real?
And so, we find ourselves at the intersection of technology and philosophy, pondering questions that don’t have easy answers. It’s a fantastic time to be alive, or in the case of my photographic subjects, to be a string of zeros and ones arranged in a visually pleasing manner.
So there you have it. In the time it would take to watch a movie, I became an AI street photographer. It’s a brave new world, and this is just the beginning. Imagine what we’ll see when more artists and tech-savvy folks like you and me dive deeper into this melding of disciplines. For now, I’ll keep tinkering, prompting, and Photoshopping, all the while marveling at the incredible (and sometimes eerie) capabilities of AI art.
Below are some handpicked photos along with their corresponding prompts.
tepsi’s’south bay street party’ official mixtape, in the style of sony fe 35mm f/1.4 za, pensive portraiture, bokeh, photo taken with nikon d750, neon lights, dogon art, spontaneous gesture –ar 128:85 
tepsi’s’south bay street party’ official mixtape, in the style of sony fe 35mm f/1.4 za, pensive portraiture, bokeh, photo taken with nikon d750, neon lights, dogon art, spontaneous gesture –ar 128:85
Editorial Vogue feature realistic beauty profesional night flash photography woman funky punk clothes abandoned building. Captured by the deft hands of a photographer,ultra-realistic photograph captured with a Sony α7 III camera. highlighting the subject
an older woman sells flowers in front of a stand surrounded by other plants, in the style of creative commons attribution, street-savvy, multiculturalism, smilecore, pentax 645n, representational, hispanicore –ar 53:80
man with fire in, in the style of imaginative prison scenes, street fashion, post-apocalyptic backdrops, traditional costumes, princecore, wimmelbilder, comic book-inspired –ar 2:3
a young man standing in front of a car as night falls, in the style of vibrant street scenes, carnivalcore, charly amani, pensive portraiture, neon lights, haroon mirza, free-associative –ar 128:85
dancer by geoffrey dibben in nairobi, in the style of sony fe 12-24mm f/2.8 gm, gritty urban scenes, dark orange and pink, celebration of rural life, gustave doré, pinturicchio, quito school –ar 39:22
a woman in a raincoat walking along a city street, in the style of australian tonalism, night photography, comic book-influenced, photobash, hyper-realistic portraits, urban interventions, white and red
a woman in a raincoat walking along a city street, in the style of australian tonalism, night photography, comic book-influenced, photobash, hyper-realistic portraits, urban interventions, white and red
woman arranging flowers with her hands, in the style of canon eos 5d mark iv, cildo meireles, louis majorelle, fujifilm pro 800z, maori art, gerard sekoto, vibrant street scenes –ar 128:85
a person walking on a sidewalk at night, in the style of duffy sheridan, liam wong, nora heysen, soggy, photo taken with provia, depicts real life, vibrant urban scenes –ar 64:31
a man with lights around him near a car, in the style of vibrant street scenes, vibrant colorism, soft-focus portraits, wim wenders, carnivalcore, lit kid, gabriel metsu –ar 128:85
a man with his phone looks in the street, in the style of neon lights, progressive artists’ movement, yoruba art, canon eos 5d mark iv, young british artists (ybas), sharp/prickly, low-angle –ar 128:85
a man sitting on a subway with graffiti on the seat, in the style of new american color photography, childhood arcadias, maroon and crimson, 1970–present, genderless, movie still, afrofuturism-inspired –ar 125:83
a man sitting on a subway with graffiti on the seat, in the style of new american color photography, childhood arcadias, maroon and crimson, 1970–present, genderless, movie still, afrofuturism-inspired –ar 125:83
dancer by geoffrey dibben in nairobi, in the style of sony fe 12-24mm f/2.8 gm, gritty urban scenes, dark orange and pink, celebration of rural life, gustave doré, pinturicchio, quito school –ar 39:22
hildren in india play football, in the style of surrealistic urban scenes, yellow and gold, nikolai lockertsen, animal intensity, felicia simion, playing with light and shadow, bold chromaticity –ar 112:75 –s 50
childhood in india, by abdulai yinanpi, in the style of vibrant urban scenes, playful use of light, playful poses, yellow and gold, animal intensity, felicia simion, nikon d850 –ar 112:75