It used to be believed that ‘the camera never lies’ and that photographs captured a true moment in time. However, this has never been entirely accurate. Photographs have always contained an element of construction, and viewing a photograph has never been the same as experiencing the world visually. With the development of ‘photo-realistic’ image manipulation tools such as Adobe Photoshop, and now the emergence of image-generating AI, most of us have come to accept that a photograph is, at best, a representation of reality and not the reality itself.

Algorithmic photography

Alex May’s ‘algorithmic photography’ technique embraces this idea, using computer programming to combine multiple views of a scene over time to produce images that reveal previously hidden patterns and movements.

Unlike timelapse photography, which overlays a sequence of frames without any decision making involved, Alex’s software allows him to select which elements of a frame to combine, enabling him to focus on movement, colour, or any other attributes he thinks will be interesting to include in the final image.

Alex May’s Birds and a drone pass a family posing for a photo in front of Brighton Pavilion, UK (2018)

In the collection of 20 artworks currently on show at BCS Moorgate, you can see vapour trails of pigeons over Brighton Pavilion, the complex patterns of movement within a murmuration of starlings, and the micro highways on a log followed by a nest of ants. In one image, a wind turbine creates a complex abstract artwork and in another a pond of Koi carp takes on an almost painterly quality. All of the images have a crispness that makes you wonder if you are looking at something real or generated — and of course, it is both.

AI and the artistic process

Alex is looking to extend his algorithmic photography technique further with the use of AI image segmentation in the combining process, meaning that he will be able to specify the types of objects that the resulting image will focus on.