Photographer reimagines the super-rich
Indian photographer Gokul Pillai has shared his vision of “slumdog billionaires” with the world.
Using Midjourney, an artificial intelligence program that pulls artists’ work from across the internet to generate AI ‘art’, Gokul has taken some of the world’s wealthiest and reimagined them in scenarios far from what they’re used to.
The likes of Jeff Bezos, Donald Trump, Muskesh Ambani, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk were reimagined by the photographer after his viewing of the award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire inspired him to consider them as their own ‘poor’ counterparts.
“It was very coincidental,” he told The Daily Mail. “The movie is set in the slums of India and I wanted to recreate something based on that.
“The word 'millionaire' in the movie title and juxtapositioning it with actual billionaires, that's how it started.”
Gokul posted his series to Instagram with the title “Slumdog Millionaires”, and called on his followers to let him know if he’d forgotten to include anyone.
His post quickly went viral, with comments rolling in from supporters who had praise and suggestions in store, and also those who weren’t thrilled about his use of an AI generator.
“Just amazing,” wrote one follower, “they look real.”
“This is epic,” said another, alongside a flame emoji.
“What an insane concept,” one noted.
“Wonderful series of images,” praised one more, to a chorus of agreement.
As Gokul confessed to The Daily Mail, he was delighted and “completely overwhelmed with the response” to his series, despite his idea that “it would be funny and [a] few might find it hilarious”.
However, there were still those who believed Gokul - who has also shared his own photography to his account - could have approached it differently, without the use of AI, and made sure to point it out.
“AI ‘artist’... that's funny,” one said.
“Midjourney is honestly scary if you think about how evil people who desire to assassinate someone's character would use it,” another admitted, to an outpouring of likes. “As an artist it excites me but looking into the future it scares the c**p out of me.”
As for how well Gokul felt he’d achieved his vision, he confessed that while it was hard to determine who had been the most popular, it was “probably Bill Gates”, and that his followers had decreed that Mukesh Ambani “looked the poorest.”
And to those same supporters he gave his thanks, returning to his own post to write “thank you all for the great response on the post.. I totally appreciate the support.. thank you!!”
Images: Instagram, Midjourney