By Marlene Polywka and Lars Lubienetzki | Aug 11, 2023 12:56 p.m
Have you ever wondered what Lady Diana or Heath Ledger would look like today if they hadn’t died so young? Or also what our today’s stars could look like in 30 to 40 years? A Turkish artist tries to find answers using an AI.
When prominent people die, iconic images get stuck in our minds. We all remember Kurt Cobain at the legendary MTV unplugged concert with a cigarette and a cardigan. Or Lady Di, who always looks a little shyly at the cameras with her head slightly bowed. Also unforgettable is the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, whose face is more like a mask due to numerous cosmetic surgeries shortly before his death. What if all those people hadn’t died? The images are now being provided by an art project using artificial intelligence (AI). And the project goes much further.
AI project reveals dead celebrities
The mastermind behind the As If Nothing Happened project is Turkish photographer and artist Alper Yesiltas. On his Instagram channel, he shows photos of famous people who have died. In addition to the celebrities already mentioned, we see photos of John Lennon, the Beatles, British singer Amy Winehouse and even Queen legend Freddie Mercury.
The amazing thing: the photos look like they were taken yesterday. The natural aging of the face appears so lifelike, as if these people were actually still among us.
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Touching portraits
Some of the people depicted died at a young age. Among them are the soul legend with the grating voice, Janis Joplin, or rock icon and guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Thanks to AI, we now get a glimpse of what these famous people would look like today, aged gracefully.
The actor Heath Ledger has had great success in various genres. In “Brokeback Mountain”, for example, he convinced alongside Jack Gyllenhaal as a young man who struggles with his sexuality. Also unforgettable is the romantic comedy “10 Things I Hate About You”. And, of course, his portrayal of Batman villain Joker remains iconic to this day. He also received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor posthumously after he was found dead in January 2008 as a result of drug abuse.
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Singer Selena died in 1995 at the age of 23. Unfortunately, part of her myth is that she was shot by a good friend after she had embezzled money. To this day, Selena is one of the most popular Latina musicians in the world.
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Freddie Mercury is still considered one of the most influential rock musicians in history. With his band “Queen” he released hits like “We Are the Champion”, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “We Will Rock You” and “Don’t Stop Me Now”. The artist died of AIDS in 1991 at the age of just 45.
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AI doesn’t just undo death
The AI photos of Michael Jackson and Amy Winehouse are particularly touching. We see a Michael Jackson with natural, curly hair and a full beard laughing happily. A King of Pop like we’ve never seen in real life.
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Amy Winehouse couldn’t handle her fame from an early age, so she turned to alcohol and drugs to numb herself. The last photos of her lifetime show a fallen artist, marked by drug addiction. Artist Alper Yesiltas shows us a woman in her late 30s, beaming at the camera.
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In his project, the artist has also brought old stars into the present. This gives us a rough idea of how well Audrey Hepburn would have looked with a modern hairstyle and clothes. Or how Charlie Chaplin would have looked today without his iconic bowler hat.
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This is how our stars of today could age
Due in part to the success of his project As f Nothing Happened, the artist is now going one step further. With the help of AI, he not only shows the possible portraits of dead celebrities, but also what today’s celebrities might look like in a few decades.
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We can state that, for example, Ryan Gosling or Robert Pattinson will probably age excellently.
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AI art – impressive and terrifying
Looking at the pictures, one inevitably wishes that these people had had the chance to see themselves that way. Despite AI, all portraits do not look artificial, but very realistic. According to his own statements, it was precisely these thoughts that spurred the artist Alper Yesiltas to start this project. The photographer has therefore chosen famous people who have impressed him in his life and whom he misses. The thought of seeing these people again drives him on.
For his project, the photographer experimented with various AI programs in order to depict the selected celebrities as realistically as possible. The result is both impressive and frightening because it shows what AI is capable of today. The idea of using computers to bring famous and popular dead actresses back to life has been around for a long time in the film industry. Some of this has already been successfully implemented, such as for the latest Star Wars trilogy, in which we still see Carrie Fisher as Princess Leah even after her death. Or think of deepfake videos in which, for example, politicians give speeches that never existed.
The art project “As If Nothing Happened” by the artist Alper Yesiltas is a thoroughly positive exception in this series. The photographer uses AI responsibly and with the intention of giving us unforgettable moments that have never been captured by a camera.