Utilising A.I., Charlie Engman Creates An Alternate City
The photographer creates impossible-to-stage images exploring emotional states in urban life
The photographer creates impossible-to-stage images exploring emotional states in urban life
Brooklyn-based Charlie Engman has photographed models, movie stars, fashion icons and, in a collaboration lasting more than a decade, his own mother, Kathleen. But in recent years he has been working with A.I. tools such as Midjourney and Dall-E, generating images that would be impossible to stage in real life. Drawing on his past involvements in dance and performance, Engman's A.I. works utilize the technology’s limited reading of the inner states that connect to physical expression to create bewitching, contradictory beings.
At the invitation of Frieze Week, Engman presents a series of fantasy observations of the inhabitants of his adopted city: urban dwellers that are proudly sculptural objects, as well messy, emotive and all-too-human. In short? It's New York, Jim, but not as we know it.
Charlie Engman, Lawn Thoughts, 2023. Courtesy: the artist
Charlie Engman, Embrace (Fruit), 2023. Courtesy: the artist
Charlie Engman, Embrace (Fridge), 2023. Courtesy: the artist
Charlie Engman, Wig Thoughts, 2023. Courtesy: the artist
Charlie Engman, Lunch Break, 2023. Courtesy: the artist
Charlie Engman, Finger, 2023. Courtesy: the artist
Charlie Engman, Embrace (Scraps), 2023. Courtesy: the artist
Charlie Engman, Fried Egg, 2023. Courtesy: the artist
This article first appeared in Frieze Week, May 2023 under the headline ‘Welcome to my Island’
Main image: Charlie Engman, Embrace (Fruit), 2023. Courtesy: the artist
