The MidJourney Ahead
I started doing non-professional photography a couple of decades ago. It is a passion of mine. There is creativity to be found in making photos but also constraints. My photo archive could be used as inspiration or direct source material for other kinds artistic image making.
My goal in using MidJourney is to create ‘mixed media’ images that have unique character. Combining photography, MJ and other source materials seems to be a way to extend my creative reach. I’m not trying to duplicate photographs. The photography community is rather conservative about accepting non-traditional images.
So what about MidJourney?
MidJourney is an example of image creation software that uses text based descriptions to indirectly control graphic output. Basically you type a description and instructions for what you want to see with perhaps a reference image. The software then creates something on-the-spot. Chances are good the results will not be what you were seeing in your mind’s eye. But they may very well be interesting perhaps even what you could call artistic.
Humans make art. Machines even fancy ones create something that might be called AI art. A human can use AI art as a component or idea for making actual artistic work. Unfortunately the hype over this is causing great distress among some visual artists.
