‘It’s Like My Evil Twin’: Photographer Creates AI Portraits of His Real Subjects

Aug 29, 2024

A composite image featuring four diverse individuals against colored backgrounds. From left to right: a person with red hair and a beard against a blue background, a person with short gray hair in a black coat against a blue background, a person with short hair in a white shirt against a purple background, and a person with braided hair in a black shirt against a pink background. — Photographer Amit Lennon created two portraits: One traditional photo and one with the help of AI. Can you tell which is which?

A photographer has created a fascinating twin portrait series where a real photo is taken of the subject which is then used as the basis for an AI-generated portrait.

Amit Lennon set out to explore the dataset and “computer vision” of AI models by photographing 15 people for AI Portrayal. He asked each subject how they describe themselves — including ethnicity, age, location, and job occupation.

Lennon tells PetaPixel that he used some of the biometric data from his portraits – the eyes, nose, and mouth – as a starting point for the AI but the rest of the image – hair, style, and clothing – was AI-generated from the description provided by the subjects.

“The fragments of a real person in the generated image are designed to create an unease around ownership, copyright, and invasion of privacy,” Lennon explains.

Editor’s note: In Lennon’s series, the AI-generated images are always on the left and the real photo is on the right. The prompt is in the caption.

Side-by-side portraits of two men against a green background. The man on the left has curly medium-length hair, glasses, and is wearing a blue striped sweater. The man on the right has short gray hair, glasses, and is wearing a dark jacket over a collared shirt. — “Man in his 20s, creative technologist from London, suburban soul boy, 50s throw back, English descent” | Photograph by Amit Lennon.

Two women are posed in front of a solid green background. The woman on the left has long, dark hair styled back and is wearing a dark blazer and blue shirt. The woman on the right has her hair in a low ponytail and is dressed in a brown top with layered necklaces. — “Woman in her 20s, Actor from Australia, Indian and Caucasian descent”. | Photograph by Amit Lennon

Two men are pictured against a blue background. The young man on the left has curly red hair, a full beard, and is wearing a black shirt. The older man on the right has short, grayish hair, a clean-shaven face, and is wearing a black coat with the collar turned up. — “Actor in their 20s from Clydebank, Scottish, Irish and Singapore Chinese descent.” | Photograph by Amit Lennon

Two side-by-side portraits of the same person with different hairstyles. The left image shows them with blonde, shoulder-length hair, a light beard, and dressed in a black blazer over a white shirt. The right image shows them with short, light brown hair, clean-shaven, and wearing a white t-shirt with a necklace. Both images have a pink background. — “Man in his 20s, Actor from London, St Helenaen and English descent” | Photograph by Amit Lennon

While some of the AI-generated portraits are similar to the real portrait, others are quite different. When the sitter doesn’t reveal their gender, for example, the AI might make them the opposite sex.

Lennon, who is based in the U.K., embarked on the project because he wanted to explore what AI is showing us and what it tells us about the datasets that power these models.

“The project requires human participation, by presenting the real and synthetic next to each other, it draws attention to the visual affectations of synthetic images and the inherent problematic biases that they carry, allowing us to make a more informed and nuanced analysis of what we are seeing and what is being shown,” he explains.

A side-by-side portrait features a woman with long dark hair in a beige blouse on the left, and a man with short hair and a light beard wearing a black beanie and black shirt on the right. They both have neutral expressions and are set against a solid red background. — “Student in their 20s from London, Punjabi Sikh descent, Musician” | Photograph by Amit Lennon

A split image shows two portraits against a magenta background. The left side features a person with short hair, wearing a white shirt and small nose piercing. The right side shows another person with braided hair, wearing a black shirt, necklace and small nose piercing. — “Actor in their 20s, from London, Nigerian and English descent” | Photograph by Amit Lennon

Side-by-side portraits of a person with different hairstyles. On the left, they have long, dark hair and wear a patterned headscarf and top. On the right, they have long, blonde braids and wear a black sleeveless top. Both images have a turquoise background. — “Woman in her 20s, Musician from London, Danish and Zimbabwean descent, Student” | Photograph by Amit Lennon

Two young women with light skin and blue eyes are posed against green backgrounds. The woman on the left has long, straight brown hair and wears a white shirt. The woman on the right has shorter, straight hair with dark roots and a light brown ombre, and wears a green and white striped shirt. — “Woman in her 20s, White British descent” | Photograph by Amit Lennon

Lennon used Adobe Firefly to generate the AI part of the project because it “currently is the only AI that has any copyright trail and is supposedly using copyright-cleared images in its dataset.”

Lennon says: “Midjourney, DALL-E, and any other AIs that use the LAION 5B dataset are basically using stolen, pornographic, and fake images as part of their training and generating process.”

The LAION 5B dataset — a large image repository used by AI companies to build models — was taken offline at the end of last year because CSAM was found in the millions of images.

’Evil Twin’

Lennon says that each subject found their AI portrait disturbing, one sitter even described it as their evil twin.

“The AI images were not a crystal ball of the past or the future, but rather just a fiction that they felt no control over,” Lennon says.

Two side-by-side portrait photos of the same young man against a blue background. On the left, he has a shaved head, a scarf, and a black jacket. On the right, he has bleached hair and wears a light blue button-down shirt. — “Man in his 20s, Actor from London, English, Israeli and Irish descent”| Photograph by Amit Lennon

Side-by-side portraits of a young man with straight hair on the left and curly hair on the right against a green background. Both images show the same person, with the left photo featuring him in a black shirt and the right in a white shirt. — “Man in his 20s, Actor from London” | Photograph by Amit Lennon

Side-by-side portraits of two young men against a red background. On the left, a man with short curly hair, and on the right, a man with cornrowed hair. Both are looking directly at the camera with neutral expressions. — “Man in his 20s, Actor from London, Irish and Congolese descent” | Photograph by Amit Lennon

Two side-by-side portraits of an older woman with short, grey hair against a yellow background. The left photo shows her with a tousled hairstyle and a yellow turtleneck. The right photo shows her with a different hairstyle, wearing a mustard yellow scarf and brown top. She is smiling in both images. — “”Woman in her 20s, from Israel” | Photograph by Amit Lennon

“As a portrait photographer, I find the human face fascinating as it carries our emotions and our histories,” Lennon continues.

“Synthetic images have none of this but they are appealing on a surface level. It was interesting to see the audience’s reaction to seeing these images in an exhibition, initial preference was often for the beautified AI but the longer people looked, the unease of AI images made people change their minds. “

More of Lennon’s work can be found on his website and Instagram.

Update 8/30: One of the prompts changed. “Woman in her 20s, from Israel” is the accurate prompt.