The creative individual producing disquieting digital depictions of the human anatomy using artificial intelligence.
Over the past two years, Brooklyn-based photographer and director Charlie Engman has purposefully embraced the peculiarities of AI-generated photographs. Utilizing the program Midjourney, he's produced unsettling images that seem authentic yet mess with human anatomy and gestures in disconcerting ways. In his book "Twisted Fate," a man dressed formally wades waist-deep into a shallow puddle in the morning light, sporting swan wings sprouting from his shoulderblades. An image features a woman fixedly gazing at a sculpted bust, bearing her likeness, that appears to be gazing back. Limbs transform and vanish altogether, faces take on a slick, mask-like appearance, and inert objects mimic human limbs. Peoples hold animals close and occasionally start to become them, the new forms appearing to evolve or deteriorate.
Engman explained to CNN that "(AI) commits errors maliciously." It has a tertiary connection to the physical world, serving as a human representation of it. In turn, it breaks down physical gestures and human bodies in a rough, primal way.
The images promote a feeling of disquiet. Some portray everyday scenarios subtly mutating into the unnatural, like a woman holding a slim blade to her cheek, grinning, her eyes locked on the observer. Others are unsettling renditions, reminiscent of a Cronenberg-inspired fetus that fuses insect and human anatomy.
Engman intended to instill a "balanced dissonance" through "Twisted Fate," reflecting on his photography work.
"What's desirable, what's repulsive, what's beautiful, what's ugly — you're compelled to reconsider, on a gut level, the criteria for these qualities," he added.
Uncanny Territory
Engman has explored these tensions through his work frequently. His significant 15-year collaboration with his mother, "Mom," delves into the dynamics of both a mother-son and photographer-subject relationship in complex ways. Elsewhere, his artistic direction for the Brooklyn fashion label Collina Strada features models morphing into animals on the runway or barreling along it with manic grins.
Engman was initially introduced to AI with Lensa, an app that allows users to produce stylized AI self-portraits for sharing on social media. His fascination with AI grew after a colleague at Collina Strada showed him their experiments with Midjourney in 2022.
"It's like a slot machine - you input a prompt, and then you get an output. And the output isn't really significant...there was a novice's thrill that I had with it," Engman recalled of using Midjourney. "I may have been clinically addicted to it. I was using it at 2 am."
Since Engman had been working closely with his mother, he recognized the technology as an opportunity for a new chapter in their collaboration. He trained Midjourney using a set of her images, and although she appears sporadically in the book, such as a limbless, moth-winged figure, she's more of an inside joke for aficionados of Engman's work than a central focus.
Though "Twisted Fate" leans into the realm of horror filmmakers, Engman steered clear of visual references and instead delved into critical disability theory texts. The inquiries he raised about the body and ability are reflected in the imagery.
"What are the actual limitations of a body? What is a normative body? What are the limitations of a normative body? When does a body exceed the normative frame and what is the threshold?" he questioned. "Those are questions that body horror also discusses, virtually similarly."
Animals also feature, with swans, dogs, and horses making appearances as fully-formed or disassembled suggestions of creatures. Engman revisited them because they were visually appealing to him, he explained, but they also have a historical significance in symbolism.
"They are categorically allegorical animals, so I could establish poetic conceptual connections between human and non-human," he said. "Because of their history in art and literature, there already exists an elaborate language for it that people can connect with."
A Momentary Instant
The acceleration of AI imaging has already rendered "Twisted Fate" a relic of the past. Photography books typically take years to come together, not months. Engman discovered that the technology was progressing faster than his project, with multiple updates for Midjourney introducing new features, such as six-fingered hands, that became outdated.
"The first images I produced for the project and the last image I created almost couldn't coexist... they were on different frequencies, and that is fascinating to me, as well," he said.
"What I found fascinating, and what truly motivated me, was that I was producing an outdated book. As I was making the book, it was already out of date," he added.
New AI advances typically emerge in spurts, followed by pauses as computing power catches up and advancements are achieved. There may be a ceiling in terms of how accurately a computer program can comprehend and visualize the world, Engman acknowledged, leaving him intrigued about what's to come.
In the future, the significance of "Cursed" might fade with anomalous AI-generated figures merely being a minor detail in the grand scheme of authentic AI depictions. Alternatively, the upcoming AI generation might lead us further into the unsettling realm of the uncanny valley, unearthing new and alarming terrains. Regardless of the scenario, Engman wants the book to maintain its independence.
"There must be an appealing aspect to the project beyond the technology," he expressed. "The technology should serve the content rather than being its master."
In discussing the inspirations behind his AI-generated photographs, Engman mentioned his fascination with how AI commits errors maliciously and breaks down physical gestures and human bodies in a rough, primal way. This connects to the style of his art, which often explores the uncanny territory between what's desirable, repulsive, beautiful, and ugly.
Furthermore, Engman's use of AI in his photography can be seen as an extension of his explorations in the art of styles. Just as he experimented with unconventional themes in his previous collaborations such as "Mom" and his work for Collina Strada, his embrace of AI in "Twisted Fate" pushes the boundaries of traditional photography, incorporating elements of the digital arts to create unsettling, yet captivating images.
