ALTERNATIVE IRREALITY
Visual Essay
At first, it was a question: to what extent can generative AI recreate existing images? And at what point does imitation become appropriation?
In Alternative Irreality, I asked ChatGPT to describe more than 200 iconic photographs without ever naming the authors nor the name of the picture. These descriptions were then submitted to Midjourney to generate new images. I never wrote a single prompt myself. I deliberately erased my presence, letting two AI systems interact.
The results are unsettling. Faces reappear. Compositions align. Even the mood of the originals persists. And it usually took two minutes and thirty seconds to complete the entire process for one image.
Alternative Irreality is a critical experiment questioning the impact of generative AI on photographic heritage. It contains no direct reproductions of original works, but images generated from descriptions. Any uncanny resemblance illustrates precisely the issues raised.
Press :
