We created PhotoVogue Festival Echoes to allow those who participated in the event to contribute their voices to the Festival’s narrative. During those days in Milan, we recognised our community’s desire to come together and draw inspiration from each other’s works. We highly value the sharing of experiences and practices, firmly believing that providing dedicated space to each artist can appropriately acknowledge the outstanding projects exhibited in November at the PhotoVogue Festival.
Alexey Chernikov is the protagonist of the 8th episode of PhotoVogue Festival Echoes. He participated at the PhotoVogue Festival in Milan in the exhibition ‘Uncanny Atlas: Image in the Age of A.I.’ curated by Chiara Bardelli Nonino. His project, ‘One last Journey’, illustrates the last journey a couple decided to undertake, freezing their memories in 40 photographs taken with their Polaroid camera. They have grown apart, but they still share their love for instant photography. The photographs though are not simple Polaroid: they were created using Midjourney AI and printed on the polaroid using the Polaroid Lab printer, reproducing the classic iconography of instant photography. This project is an allegory of the relationship between instant photography and A.I.: Polaroid images, when they were first invented, were mainly used to capture instant, not reproducible moments. Through time and with the advent of digital photography, Polaroids gained popularity for their aesthetic. Now, with the spread of Artificial Intelligence, their original significance has been lost. Chernikov’s A.I. generated polaroids become a symbol of the end of an era, used for one last time with their prime use: to capture our ever-changing, elusive life.
1. What is your favorite memory of the PhotoVogue Festival 2023?
One of the best memories is having a lot of new exchanges during the dinner, it allowed to connect with the artists exhibited and have nice conversations.
2. Your work One last journey depicts the journey of a couple, a metaphor of the relationship between Polaroid and A.I. and the revolution that is now occurring in photography. How should we look at the future of photography and AI?
We should look at the future of photography and AI in the same way we now reflect on the time when photography arrived in a world mostly dominated by realistic paintings. Considering Roland Barthes’ interpretation of photography, we will need to explore new ways of discussing the subjects it depicts, taking in consideration or the other possible ways of obtaining photographic images.
3. About yourself you said that you study “how established meanings and concepts are being alternated while the new codes are not yet clearly defined”. How is the project One last Journey connected to this study?
One last Journey, is basically about me using a medium that is losing its importance to create a visual lie. Our way of reading Polaroid images is something established; we learn that a real moment is documented by a chemical process. What do we learn when we see an AI generated image? Well, not much yet, we know that what is depicted did not exist in the real world. At the same time if we see an AI generated cow, our brain still links it with a referent. So, is that different then?
4. Is there an upcoming project you are working on?
Yes, it’s called Double Exposures. The project focuses on the significant changes happening in the photography world right now and our emotional responses toward them. The storyline takes the role of a medium format film from the artist’s personal archive as a starting point. The original film image is analyzed by Midjourney and transformed into a prompt, which is then used to generate a new image. This image is transferred back onto the film using a laser cutter. In this way, the film is exposed to light a second time, but this time it happens artificially. Through this process, the original photo is being destroyed. The combination of these two techniques creates a rough visual language depicting our fears towards rapidly advancing AI tools.
