For Friends
December 2023 -
For Friends is an ongoing collection of 360 portraits created out of the combination of generative systems of photography, coding, and AI.
Over the next 13 years, For Friends will be an exploration of the evolution of technology over time, the visual narrative of vast and ingenuous reinterpretations of a singular artistic instruction, and the unique intersection of the personal and the digital, encapsulating the essence of evolving friendships and my own artistic pathway.
Approach
Each piece in For Friends consists of three interconnected elements: Generative photography, generative coding, and generative AI. I’d love to talk about each of them.
Generative Photography
I have long been fascinated by the concept of instruction-based artwork, an idea explored by artists like Marcel Duchamp and Sol LeWitt. Their work demonstrates the creative potential of frameworks where interpretation becomes as significant as execution.
At the core of For Friends lies precisely that, an instruction. I like to think about it as if it was a human-centered algorithm, where the magic relies on the interpretation each of us gives to what the instruction explicitly states—and, just as importantly, what it leaves open to interpretation.
The instruction reads:
“Take a medium close-up shot of a friend where the body and look are centered, facing at the camera.”
It’s clear enough to know what to do yet open-ended enough to invite creativity.
Portrait #1: A happy Dalos inside a bar in NYC.
Generative AI
We're living in the midst of an AI revolution, and I couldn’t imagine leaving it out of this project. It’s fascinating to think about how far AI has already come—and even more exciting to imagine where it will be ten or more years from now. What feels groundbreaking today will likely look completely different in the near future.
With this in mind, I decided to use generative AI to add to the backgrounds of the portraits. This felt like the perfect way to capture the rapid evolution of the technology without taking attention away from the main subject.
To make sure the balance felt right, the aspect ratio of each piece carefully considers how the weight of the portrait interacts with the AI-generated background. My goal is to let both elements shine, but in a way that feels cohesive and natural.
Each side of the portait is amplified with generative AI.
Generative Code
Friendships are special because they’re so unique, and they often start in the most random and unexpected ways—moments that feel like little twists of fate.
To reflect this, I created a simple p5.js script as the final step in completing each portrait. This script introduces an element of randomness into the process, just as chance plays a role in how friendships begin. When it’s time to finalize their piece, the Friend interacts with the script, which selects a unique hue for their portrait.
This hue is then applied as a filter over the image, adding a final layer of individuality to the piece. It’s a small but meaningful detail, representing how each friendship brings its own color to our lives—literally and figuratively.
On the left, the script running before running the code. On the right, the chosen hue after The Friend ran the code.
For me, art has always been richer when it’s shared with friends. The friendships I’ve made along the way have been so inspiring and generous that giving back through this project felt like the most natural thing to do. For Friends is not just about the portraits—it’s about capturing the connections that define us and creating something lasting to celebrate them.
