One of my recent book cover art commissions was released by the author on social media (see below) and someone commented/asked whether or not the original artists were credited since it’s “AI Art”. Part of my response was to ask this question: Did Romare Bearden credit the original photographers in his collage work?
Art Is Always Made from Other Art — Bearden via MoMA
Romare Bearden in Long Island City studio. c.1980s. Courtesy the Long Island Pulse
Since high school, I’ve taken inspiration from Romare Bearden to create collages. Bearden used Photostat machines and film projectors to make large-scale photo reproductions. Photostats, which were introduced in the early 1900s, makes copies of ‘graphic matter’ photographically on sensitized paper. Bearden made a practice of copying, redrawing, and reworking his images. Mechanical reproduction was a key stage of his process and today we use other kinds of machines: computers.
City of Winnipeg Archives. Photostat Camera and Operator, 1954 (A568 File 15 Item 6).
As you can see in the image above, Photostat machines were bulky and needing their own rooms to operate.