Mixed media and photography

With new digital tools emerging daily, how can we create captivating images combining real people and abstract, computer generated elements?

I had a conversation with a photography talent agent not long ago. It was just a portfolio review, but there was in interesting twist to it. The conversation I had happened in March, but what I heard echoed what I felt pulled toward doing back in November 2024.

It begins not in style, but fear…

I started my photography journey with headshots for actors. Having just come off the acting wagon myself (in the end, I knew in my heart of hearts it wasn’t for me), I realised I’ve always been interested in photography, and all actors need some good headshots to submit to castings. The solution was simple - start offering image packages. I had extensive experience of being both behind and in front of the camera, so this was a no-brainer really.

But then I felt the need to explore more, to challenge myself and create more intricate work. This is where I started seeing all the fashion campaign photos, and started wondering about how I could do it myself. Fast forward to now, that is the core of my business (although I am also wanting to expand into portraiture again soon!).

Having taken a break from photography after Covid, I contemplated coming back to it with a bit of fear. After all, isn’t AI about to completely change the landscape of what we’re doing? It’s going to make this work redundant, surely, no? But in the end I decided to take a leap regardless. However, instead of letting my fear hide in the corners of my mind, I opened myself up to experimenting with the AI tools - Midjourney and Adobe Firefly mostly.

Very quickly I realised I want to incorporate real life photography - with humans and real clothes or objects - with mixed media / artificial elements. And so I started dabbling with those tools.

“I did it my way”

It wasn’t easy to begin with, mainly because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to get out of these tools, and how I wanted to “upscale” my images, but slowly I started navigating the ideas more confidently and were able to achieve better, more interesting results; results that I think enhanced the images, not necessarily obstructed them.

I also wanted to take it further and start adding fabric to images. I even had some ideas sketched out, but randomly I started feeling that this is no way to go. For some reason, I stopped myself from pursuing this idea, never getting around to buying the fabric, not being able to decide what kind of material would work best, and what to do with it. Plus, I just didn’t believe anyone cared I think.

Then I had that conversation with the talent agent.

And she told me to do exactly that - add fabric, experiment, print those images and paint on them. Make it unique to ME. She said this would eventually lead to brands fitting in to my work, not me trying to fit into the brands. And I sat there, stunned, thinking - “This is exactly what I wanted to do but thought no-one would buy it”.

How we stop ourselves from doing things that may ultimately lead to breakthroughs because we think the idea is no good, or that no one is watching and paying attention.

Off to work we go.

So naturally, the next step was to print some images on normal sketching paper (so with some weight to it), and start actually adding real paint to these pictures. I used Firefly to ideate some things, and must say the resulting images were really fun to make. I must point out I don’t really know how to paint, or use brushes and paint like a professional, but I enjoyed the playing aspect of things. Just having a go at it.

They’re not perfect, they’re messy, weird, but - human-made. And made with attention and care, and my own hands. And there’s something really exciting about doing something creative with your hands, outside of the digital space. Where you can pick it up and touch it, frame it, hold it.

We used to print images all the time and handle them with care (or not!), and put them in albums, taking time and preparation to cherish memories. I still have very old photo albums with images of me and my family when I was a little baby. That printed image is worth a lot more than just a digital copy. There’s something truly magical about a thing that’s made by a human. I really hope we come to value it really highly now in the overwhelming age of artificial content. I think the deep longing for those things is awakening in all of us slowly, despite what the AI overlords say:).

Here’s few more experiments with Adobe Firefly, this time however purely digital, because unfortunately my printer is not getting the details and colours right, I might have to stick to computer images for a bit longer still, before I can invest in a proper photography printer. In the meantime, however…