Photojournalist Michael Christopher Brown has provoked a debate with photographs he has made using artificial intelligence. At 7.30 p.m. on Friday, 13 October 2023, he will be showing his project 90 Miles in Theatre 1 at Vega Scene during the Mirage Film Festival.
The American documentary photographer Michael Christopher Brown is an internationally acclaimed press photographer who has worked for publications such as National Geographic Magazine, New York Times, Vanity Fair, Time and Vogue. His works have been shown at galleries and museums the world over.
On Friday, he will be in Oslo at the Mirage Film Festival to talk about and show photos from his most recent project: 90 Miles. For his project, the photographer used artificial intelligence, AI, to create photographs that explore events associated with the Cubans who crossed the waters between Havana and Florida, a distance of 90 miles.
Tickets to the event are available on the Mirage Film Festival website here.
For many years, Brown has explored new techniques in the documentary genre. In 2011, he used an iPhone and photo apps on his phone to document the Libyan revolution, culminating in the book Libyan Sugar. The book went on to win a Paris Photo Book Award and an ICP Infinity Award.
When working as a photographer in Libya, he also played a leading part in the HBO documentary Witness: Libya and, as a cinematographer, he has contributed to a number of other documentaries from that area.
Over the past year, Brown has been working on his project 90 Miles. The project set off an international debate when he launched it on Instagram earlier this year. While many praised his creative use of AI, others were of the opinion that his legitimacy as an editorial photographer had been dealt a serious blow.
At the seminar in Oslo on Friday, he will talk about the ideas and thoughts behind the project, how he worked with artificial intelligence, how this method influences him as a photographer, and the dilemmas it creates for him as a photographer as well as for the industry of which he is a part.
90 Miles is an experiment in illustration, where AI is used to create photographs that explore historical events in Cuban society. Such events motivated Cubans to venture across the ocean waters that divide Havana from Florida.
For more than 25 years, the photographer kept a list of topics he wanted to address to document aspects of how Cubans fled from their homeland. However, Brown never managed to follow up, largely because he was unable to get access. As a result, he began to use AI to create images based on his own research and facts gained from his field work.
“For a long time, editorial boards have used stock photos to illustrate stories in new ways. The project 90 Miles may reflect a new way to translate stories into photos intended to help bring people closer to important stories from our time”, writes photographer Brown about his project.
“At the moment, pretty much anyone can create images about any subject, wherever and whenever they want to do so. The images can tell a story of something has happened earlier, is happening now, or might happen in future”, he continues.
Brown maintains that AI can also play a decisive part in bringing people closer to learning more about our common history.
What: NJP master class with Michael Christopher Brown
When: Friday, 13 October 2023
Time: 7.30 – 9.00 p.m.
Venue: Theatre 1, Vega Scene, during the Mirage Film Festival
Tickets: Buy tickets here
