Shipping & Returns
Shipping is free on all orders.
Artworks ship within 14 days of purchase or upon conclusion of the show.
You'll receive confirmation of shipping and delivery via email.
You have 14 days to request a return and another 14 days to return the artwork. For more details, please review our full Return Policy.
Artwork Description
Artist Information
Bio
Aaron Brethorst was born in Minneapolis, MN in 1982, and has lived in Seattle, WA since 2003. Brethorst is a software developer and photographer, and works with both digital photography and black and white film, which he develops and prints himself. His photographic work has been featured in print in magazines and books, online on The Stranger, and has appeared in juried art shows across the United States.His education includes a Computer Science degree, received in 2003 from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, and ongoing work towards a certificate in fine art photography from Seattle's Photographic Center Northwest. There, he has studied under such talented educators as KelbyOne instructor Daniel Gregory, Everyday Africa creator Peter DiCampo, and the Executive Director of PCNW and former Co-Publisher of Aperture Magazine, Michelle Dunn Marsh.
Aaron's work has been featured in juried art shows in New York, California, Florida, and Washington, among other places. His photograph "Adam & Son" received second place in the photography category at the 2016 CVG Show in Bremerton, Washington. "Adam & Son" was part of a series entitled "Our Photos," which asked its participants to pose with the most important photograph they had created.
Artist Statement
In "Simulacra and Simulation," I draw inspiration from Jean Baudrillard's influential, eponymous treatise to investigate how modern technology affects the complex relationship between reality and representation, and explore what constitutes a real photograph in our post-ChatGPT world.The photographs in this project were made on Kodak Tri-X film with a Hasselblad 501CM camera and printed with their film borders visible, thus staking a claim to objective, unaltered reality just as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Richard Avedon did with their work.
According to cultural theorist Stephen Zagala, "Printing the edge of the negative…insists on the documentary integrity of the image…[and] indicates that the picture has not been cropped or manipulated…What we see in the photograph is exactly what was captured on the film when it was exposed to the world through the camera's lens."
I make the same claim: everything you see within the edges of these photographs is real—a real photograph of the pixels of a computer screen. While this project echoes the normative realist ideologies of Cartier-Bresson and Avedon, it owes a great debt to the Pictures Generation and pioneers like Richard Prince and Sherrie Levine for their innovative perceptions in art.
My process:
1. I ask ChatGPT to describe a prominent photograph.
2. I create an image by giving ChatGPT's description to the AI image generator Midjourney.
3. I photograph my computer's screen, where Midjourney's image can be seen.
4. I develop and print the resulting photograph.
I hope to provoke contemplation on the nature of representation, authenticity, and our relationship with technology. By juxtaposing simulated images with the traditional film medium, I question the boundaries between the real and the artificial, the tangible and the virtual. This project invites viewers to reflect on the impact of technology on our perception of reality and the blurred lines between the authentic and the simulated.
Shipping & Returns
Shipping is free on all orders.
Artworks ship within 14 days of purchase or upon conclusion of the show.
You'll receive confirmation of shipping and delivery via email.
You have 14 days to request a return and another 14 days to return the artwork. For more details, please review our full Return Policy.
citiesList___city__California^country__USA^currency__USD*^*city__Edinburgh^country__United Kingdom^currency__GBP*^*city__London^country__United Kingdom^currency__GBP*^*city__Greater London^country__United Kingdom^currency__GBP*^*city__Margate^country__United Kingdom^currency__GBP*^*city__NajamCity^country__NajamCountry^currency__GBP#####countriesList___country__United Kingdom^currency__GBP*^*country__UK^currency__GBP*^*country__USA^currency__USD*^*country__United States^currency__USD*^*country__United States of America^currency__USD
You may also like
Logs
Show and sell your art with LoCA