Fadhi Muhammed is a Bahrain-born Indian photographer, director, and entrepreneur whose recent experiments with AI-generated art are turning heads.
After giving a decade of his life to photography, he has now turned to AI-generated art to better express the abstract ideas he comes up with.
Fadhi, talking about his recent foray into the world of AI-generated art, says, “AI is the new frontier in creation, it enabled thousands of people to bring their imagination to life, creating such amazing and beautiful bodies of art.”
“Simply put, I’m an imaginative person who lacks the skills to paint or craft within the mediums of traditional art, if there is such a thing. Diving into AI and Midjourney [an AI programme], in specific, helped me bridge that gap within my creative expression. Now, I can materialize my thoughts, despite not having any background in the arts; my vision is only limited by how well I communicate it to the AI and that’s empowering and I’m very excited for my journey in it.”
His recent work has followed a trend on social media of people pretending to be in a Wes Anderson film. In most of these videos, the person is usually in the centre of the frame with a very geometric and colour-saturated background.
But unlike most videos online, Fadhi’s work adds a touch of the fantastical to this trend. Instead of a 1930s hotel concierge in the fictional country of Zubrovka, Fadhi’s works feature pink astronauts in front of apartment buildings.
“Wes Anderson is one of, if not my favourite director of all time. His visual aesthetics and storytelling have always left me in awe and inspired, so it was only natural for me to gravitate toward something that resembled the works of someone I dearly admire. To be able to apply his style to any frame I can imagine is truly a leap in technology,” said Fadhi.
AI-generated art has also come under criticism ever since its inception, often being labelled as ‘art theft’ and having the perception that it doesn’t require any work at all. However, Fadhi doesn’t agree with this point of view saying that AI provides a way for people such as himself who do not have any traditional art skills to realise their vision.
The bulk of the work that goes into AI art is learning how to communicate effectively with the AI, and adjusting prompts to achieve the result you are aiming for.
Despite the criticisms AI has been receiving, Fadhi believes that AI is essential to the progress of humanity, provided that there are guidelines and rules in place to protect ourselves from any future misuse or abuse of technology.