With AI, the visual artist wanted to explore photographs that he would have taken with his camera, but could not. His curiosity led him down two paths: images of things not in history or events that were in the past but have no visual representation, and concepts that have not been thought of or have yet to happen. You can say that he’s looking forward and backward or treading between future and past, an impossible occupation made real with the power of AI.

Of future imaginings, Verzosa offers his “improbable orchids” derived from images of endemic flower species such as the Phalaenopsis, Doritaenopsis and Vanda orchids. The idea? “What if we had an algorithm... a way to breed orchids based on their physical appearance?” he says. But this time, the photographer generated the images based on his work. To cultivate the blowups of never-before-seen blooms of the Future Ecologies series, he trained Midjourney on a feed of his orchid photographs mixed with other flower images. The results are imaginary orchids, an arrangement of petals in purple, wine or ivory, with networks of veins and wrinkles, that give off the quality of malleable tenderness.

But as with any world-breaking creation, there are questions. Artificial intelligence has been praised for its potential to revolutionise life, but it also raises concerns about ethics, bias and security, with doomsayers even painting a catastrophic future where uncontrollable machines enslave humans. 

In the realm of art, makers and observers are figuring out what to do with AI images. If art is drawn from human skill and imagination, do images created with the power of artificial intelligence have artistic value? If AI programs are trained on datasets that include existing works, can they be considered original works?

Verzosa admits that the whole thing is “a big debate”. Trying to make sense of the conundrum, the visual artist brings up past innovations in imagery, likening AI to “a tool just like a camera or digital photography.” When the camera was invented, he says, people branded it as cheating or the death of painting. And when digital photography arrived, people griped about how it was too easy to make images versus film photography. 

Though not exactly equivalent to these previous advances, artificial intelligence in art is undergoing similar scrutiny, being cast as a disruptor that destroys tradition, but Verzosa takes a more forward-looking and practical view, interpreting AI as an upgrade that can be incorporated into the creative process. “Photography changes with the technology, so your capacity to create something out of the limitations of your medium greatly increases with AI,” he reflects. “That’s what fascinates me, the possibilities of image making.” 

He also brings up the human element required in the process. “In the end, when you do use these tools, like any other tool, your vision still comes out,” he says. The seed of an AI image comes from an artist’s mind—his experiences, emotions or memories—and is formed by his will and creativity—his taste, style and critical eye. Another of Verzosa’s works was inspired by the stories of his uncles and older friends about the heyday of disco in Manila and the exuberance of the ’90s club scene, as recorded in the archive photos of Filipino photographer Eddieboy Escudero, who came out with the photobook When We Danced.

He says, “I wanted to picture it. What did it look like before? And what was the history of that entire scene?” Midjourney can easily deliver hundreds of variations, Verzosa says, so the challenge is shaping and then choosing the few images that align perfectly with his idea. His experiment resulted in a series of moments: glossy revellers staring languidly into the camera mid-dance.

The big question remains: in this new world of AI, what is the role of an artist? Verzosa recognises that AI attracts good and bad players. To achieve “a more nuanced and responsible approach to image making,” he says it “all boils down to restraint in what you want to do, what you focus on when using these tools”. While AI grants artists supercharged capabilities to create, they shouldn’t be occupied only with pushing the boundaries of what is possible. As the very users of the technology, artists can guide AI and image-making toward a more ethical direction. 

For now, Verzosa is having fun experimenting with artificial intelligence, admitting that he spends almost half a day programming. There are things that he doesn’t like: how the technology can’t fully capture his style (the platforms deliver a certain look). And there are things that he does like: how the process of creating images is lightning-fast as compared to his current personal project, a series on prison tattoos (“I’ve been working on it for a year. The process is different and slower”) and how it feels more spontaneous. “It has a lot of possibilities but it still lacks tools,” the artist ends. “I want to see what is possible with what we have… I’m really curious how can we can push it creatively.”

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