From issue: #25 Multiplication
Amin Yousefi, 06 December 2024
In a strange town, a man found a shop that sold only pairs of things. Curious, he bought a mirror that showed two faces—his and an unknown one. The shopkeeper whispered, “It shows what is twice within you.” That night, the man noticed everything was doubled: people, birds, even stars. At home, he realised the truth: the mirror had revealed his double, a version of himself who would always walk beside him. [1]
Take a closer look at what’s visible in this photograph. It is as if an invisible mirror has been placed next to each item. Two chef’s coats, identical stains on the right side of the wall, a few flyers—two of which are half in and half out of the mailbox, two sets of bannisters–one above and one below the mailbox, and a notice board displaying papers with a red line across them. There is also a piece of wood where the coats hang, forming two wooden sticks rising from the bottom to the top, splitting the image in two.
[1] The short fiction produced by AI generative text-based software, ChatGPT.
This unusual coexistence of each object in the photograph sparked my curiosity, prompting me to ask YH Fong, the photographer, whether the image was AI-generated. He explained, “The original image was an outtake from a photo-documentary series about my hometown. The framing of that particular shot never looked quite right to me—it felt too tight. As a result, I excluded it from my project. However, when I came across the open call on the Photoworks website and read the brief, it gave me the idea to experiment. I wanted to explore how AI technology could enhance image-making, creatively and practically for artists. The result is this image—Trial Number 4.
Fong finds it intriguing how these two domains—documentary photography and AI seem to contradict each other. How AI reproduces and interprets “reality,” mainly how it studies and reimagines photographs, as a double in the mirror alongside documentary photography. The result showcases how AI fills the space, creating a sense of visual balance. While not all the details are perfect, Fong embraces these imperfections as part of the aesthetic and charm of the work.
YH FONG is a London-based multi-disciplinary artist. He graduated from the University of the Arts London, majoring in Film Studies. His art practice works across film and photography.
Amin Yousefi is a London-based writer, researcher, and image-based artist. Yousefi’s work examines the event of photography through the socio-political aspect of the medium.
