Selections from The River (a still-in-development project)

Recently artificial intelligence for image making has come to international attention due to leaps in technology and access for the general public. Lively discussions and controversies abound about its use as an artistic tool. Along with concerns about deep fakes, copyrights, and misinformation, there are seemingly limitless possibilities for artists and photographers. To explore the copyright and authorship issues, I asked myself when work crosses over from being a collaboration with the machine to something that only the artist can create. To wit, I developed each image as a composite from three or more of the images generated. I challenged myself to create photorealistic works that mimic the photos I make with a camera by using the text-to-image, prompt-based software, MidJourney Version 3 (pre the photo option addition.) I used a theme from another project entitled "860 Days at Acheron” which involves the period my husband left our family for another woman and my emotional, internal response to that event. The series used a Greek myth about Acheron, the River of lost souls, as its metaphor. As a nod to that, I've entitled this "The River." It's also a reference to the flow of data in the meta-verse. The consistent thematic element allowed me a direct comparison between what I had envisioned and created with a camera vs. as a collaboration with AI. Ultimately, I found I could create realistic-looking "photographs" that looked like mine.