Latent.
80 photographs. No camera.
Each one is a digital negative and a silver gelatin print.
Printed by PICTO in Paris. 50 x 50 inches.
Shown at Paris Photo, Grand Palais, November 2024.
100 years after Breton's Surrealist Manifesto.
How it was made
I generated around 8,000 images from text prompts.
80 made the cut. About 1%.
Each image became a digital negative. The negative is recorded on Ethereum.
PICTO printed the positive in Paris, on a Durst Lambda 130, in silver gelatin on baryta paper, mounted on aluminium.
The prints are 50 x 50 inches. Each is signed on the back.
A language model suggested titles. I picked and edited them.2,1,3
No camera
The negatives were never in a camera.
"a prompt is really describing the parameters of a dream, tapping into a subconscious mind much vaster than my own"
The process is closer to exporting frames from a dream, then keeping the ones that resonate.1
Latent
The name comes from latent space, where the model's images sit before anyone asks for them.
Freud used latent for the hidden part of a dream.
The Surrealists chased images they didn't consciously choose. Breton tried automatic writing. Man Ray put objects straight on photographic paper.
PICTO is a 75-year-old lab in Bastille. In the 1950s it printed for Cartier-Bresson, Capa, Doisneau and Ronis.
I write the prompt and pick the image. I don't see the rest.3
Paris Photo, 2024
LaCollection, Digital sector, Paris Photo, Grand Palais. 7-10 November 2024.
100 years after Breton's Surrealist Manifesto.
Curated by Marlene Corbun. Produced by Martin Klipp. Sound: Sonic Duality, a composition by Gary Powell.2
Development
Paris Photo, 2024
Images
Sources and further reading
Artist statements describe intention. Reporting and interviews record different perspectives; exhibition announcements establish specific presentations. How sources are classified.
1. Artist / studio · Selected posts from the downloaded account archive
Latent: notes after Paris Photo
10 selected posts, through 2024-11-27. Retrospective notes describe prompting, selection, naming and the comparison between a digital negative and a photographic print. Original wording and links are preserved; headings and notes are editorial. This is artist testimony, not independent verification.
2. Exhibition record · Production-partner exhibition record
Jack Butcher exposé à Paris Photo
Documents LaCollection's 7-10 November 2024 Paris Photo presentation, printing, curator and producer, and Gary Powell's composition. PICTO printed the works; the interpretive language is project-associated.
3. Artist / studio · Posts on X
Latent: print size, printer and signature
26-27 November 2024. States the 50 x 50 inch silver gelatin print by PICTO, the negative on Ethereum, the signature on the back of each print, and PICTO's history.