ephemerai

ephemerAI is an alternative photographic series in which I transform AI-generated images into anthotypes, using plant-based emulsions and sunlight.

Dating back to the 19th century, anthotype is a photographic process whose images gradually fade when exposed to light. Unlike conventional photographs, they cannot be fixed permanently. Their disappearance is part of their existence.

In ephemerAI, I bring together two seemingly opposing ways of creating images: the seemingly endless production of generative AI and the slow, fragile materiality of plant-based photography. Where one suggests endless reproduction and permanence, the other is defined by its impermanence.

The series reflects on memory through Henri Bergson's distinction between habit memory and pure memory. The repetitive production of images echoes the automatic nature of habit, while the fading anthotypes evoke the fragility of lived experience and the way memories transform over time.

Created using plants and flowers at the eco-farm of Kerorgan in Brittany, these images are destined to disappear. As light slowly erases them, the digital files from which they originated remain.

What endures, and what is allowed to fade?