Thanks! I’ve always loved street portrait photography. I’m a big fan of Diane Arbus, Andy Sweet, and Meryl Meisler, to name a few. I’m also completely in love with New York City, and I’ve been drawn to it since I was a kid. So many of my favorite films take place in 80s NYC, so it’s always been a magical place for me. I visit as often as I can, which is usually once or twice a year. I even once spent 5 months there. So when I started generating AI images, it only seemed natural to make portraits in NYC. I really didn’t give that aspect of it much thought. And then as my work evolved, I realized I was creating a weird and nostalgic New York that we all know and remember, but that never actually existed.
Thank you! As AI technology evolves, it’s becoming increasingly easy to generate good looking images. So in that sense, yes, anybody can do it. What does take time and skill, though, is storytelling. For the most part, anybody can generate a pretty image of a pretty person, but what I think is important is what we do or say with our images. My favorite AI artists are people who also happen to be artists in real life, so I think that probably says something about what’s needed to stand out.
Clearly I wouldn’t have this account without Humans of New York. So that’s probably the main influence for having captions in general. But in terms of how the captions are influenced — I’m really drawn to humor about mundane things. So while most of my characters are in ridiculous situations, they’re all talking like really boring people for the most part, with a few tweaks. When I come up with captions or stories, I try to find something real and boring that someone might actually say, and then I try to find some twist to it, either through the caption or the image itself.
I don’t know if any of them are actually like me! Maybe the guy complaining about grocery store etiquette. That’s probably the “realest” caption I have, since he’s just voicing my own opinion. As for favorite characters, I love all my characters equally! But I do hold a special spot in my heart for some of the earlier ones, like Ben, the East Village guy with weird tech stuck to his chest. At the time, it felt like such a random post. I didn’t particularly love it, it just made me smile. I didn’t really think much about it, and I definitely didn’t think it would go anywhere, but it ended up being the image that really got my account going. It’s still my most popular post to date. So I owe a lot to Ben!
I don’t even know where to start! The most obvious thing to me as an artist is that AI allows anybody to tell their stories. So I see that as a good thing. It’s a really great tool for concept art, too, or imagining things we haven’t thought of before. But yes, like many other new technologies, the use of AI will mean that some people won’t have as much work, or will lose their jobs entirely. We’ve seen that throughout history and that’s not an aspect that I celebrate or take lightly. But like I said, I’m a real artist in real life, and I’m embracing AI because I think it can be valuable. Even if it’s not for art, AI can make our lives much easier. Of course, there’s the worry that it might make things too easy — say, for writing an essay or doing research. I think those are good muscles to have and use. So there’s definitely a discussion to be had about what we ought to use AI for and what should be off limits from a legal and ethical standpoint. That’s a much bigger discussion, though!
I think we’re in a very exciting and scary time for AI right now. In most ways, it’s just the beginning. It’s still the wild west, and we haven’t really caught up to it yet. AI will help bring about some hugely important medical advancements. Things like an end to cancer, Alzheimer’s, etc. But we’ll also see people do some of the most horrible things imaginable if we don’t properly monitor and legislate the technology. So as tech companies race to create the “best” AI, I worry that they’re forgetting about the very real consequences that will come with giving that technology to the entire world. Like I said, it’s going to make our lives much easier in some pretty amazing ways, and I look forward to seeing all the new and exciting things to come from AI. And this goes without saying, but I hope we don’t have to deal with a Skynet type situation. Having said that, though, in sci-fi and horror films, it’s often the humans that are the real monsters.
My advice would be to just go do it. I think like any other art form, you just have to do it for yourself. I started this for fun, and I’m still doing it for fun. It makes me happy, and I’m going to keep doing it until it stops making me happy. So I think that’s the most important thing. Secondly, figure out your own voice and be original as can be. AI get a bad reputation in part because there’s just so much garbage out there. It doesn’t take AI to rip off people’s work, but AI certainly makes it way easier. So if you’re thinking about getting into AI, just remember that you can pretty much create anything you can imagine, so try to imagine something new!
