City Mirage No2
I seem to be spending lots of time exploring image composites. ‘Borrowing’ the work of others always made me uncomfortable so my photo archive is primary source material. Combining photos is much like using found images.
MidJourney and similar tools make it possible to generate specific source material for compositing. It is an inexact process but with some work you can get interesting and useful results. Such is the case here by building upon the City Mirage work posted a week or two ago.
That brings up some interesting issues for commercial illustrators and similar work-for-hire consultants. Highly specific time sensitive advertising work seems to be the niche for AI imaging at the moment. For Ad-Men time is money and good enough is the goal. Many people feel AI devalues commercial work in general. Possibly, but looking back, automation has increasingly been a factor for at least a couple of decades.
From my point of view ideas are where value is to be found. Manual skills will always be in demand in an upscale market. Quick production of good ideas is bread and butter for commercial work.
City Mirage No2 and the original City Mirage are not fine art, probably not art of any sort. They are an exercise in quirky creative imaging that is entirely personal. I’m sure there must be many people like me doing ‘vernacular art?’ and enjoying a bit of creative freedom.
