The latest digital cover and fashion editorial for Harper’s BAZAAR Serbia follows the familiar formula of a model wearing high-fashion wardrobe and posing in exotic settings. Well, formulaic except for one small detail—none of the locations and scenery in the photographs actually exist. Instead, they were generated by UNLV architecture professor, Joshua Vermillion using an AI-driven latent diffusion model called Midjourney.
Working with an editor, photographer, model, and a post-production specialist, Vermillion was able to combine fictional scenery that he designed using artificial intelligence with traditional fashion photography in order to create hybrid, seamless-looking photo collages.
“From the very first team conversations, we were all on the same page. The human photographer and the human model are very good at what they do and so we wanted the use of AI to augment rather than to replace this human talent. Everything that I generated, landscapes, architectures, or props like the wooden robotic camel on the cover—they were all deliberately portraying fanciful places and scenarios that couldn’t possibly exist and therefore couldn’t be photographed,” says Vermillion.
Vermillion’s main motivation in his design research and creative work is to try to understand how creatives can use computers creatively and he welcomes AI technology to augment the design process. So far Vermillion and many others in the architecture community seem to be having a lot of fun testing AI diffusion models, but at the same time, they are asking more critical questions about it. “I would characterize my artistic explorations as simply interrogating this new technology to understand it better in order to come to creative terms with it. Ultimately, I try to get it to produce things that couldn’t be made (or at least, not easily made) through my traditional workflows. What does this tool allow me to do that my other tools don’t as it’s own creative medium?”
“I’m very proud to have been part of the first team to pull this off,” Vermillion says about the Harper’s BAZAAR collaboration and use of AI. The cover and fashion editorial can be
Team credits:
Photography: Mirko Tabašević
Art direction & styling: Ana Ostojić
Animation: David Gažo
Model: Maja Mihajlović, Marina Masowietsky Management / Los Angeles
Midjourney designer: Joshua Vermillion
Postproduction & retoucher: Luka Ukropina
Make-up: Marija Stošić
Hair: Dragan Taubner za Balmain Hair
Contributors: Miloš Mirković @mirkovicmilos Željko Belić
Dresses, blayzer & coat: Monize
Ear cuffs: GOLDY
Rings & braclet: RingeraJA