Echoes

Echoes is a photographic project that interrogates the boundaries of authorship, perception and representation in the digital age. In his trilogy of reportages on Havana, Tangier and Hong Kong, the fictitious photographer Fidel Suftibonas presents images that are not recordings of reality, but algorithmic creations based on generative models.

The truth of photography, like that of places, is mystified through the processing of artificial intelligence. Each chapter dissolves the distinction between experience and mediation, blurring the boundaries between documentary and fiction. The process yields a simulacrum—a statistical synthesis of the most recurrent visual traits in the collective imaginary of each city.

The project explores how the creation of images has detached from the physical act of photography, taking the form of a system of signs within an entirely simulated space.

By introducing a fictitious author into an AI-driven process, Echoes challenges the role of the photographer, the necessity of their presence to bear witness and the bond of the image with its referent beyond its self-contained illusion.

Havana

Vintage blue American sedan parked on an empty street before a weathered yellow-and-teal building with a red star flag.Night portrait of a woman in a white floral headband and chandelier earrings, bokeh street lights behind her.A girl in an orange tutu dances in a sunlit street as two other girls in bright dresses watch from a corner doorway.A couple in formalwear walks away down a night street lit amber, long shadows cast, vintage car and lone man nearby.

Tangier

Dusk over dense earthen rooftops in Tangier, a minaret rising against a heavy blue-grey sky.An elderly man in a skullcap sits cross-legged on a red rug in a warm lamplit room with kilim cushions and a green door.The silhouette of a paper figure hanging in the twilight among many suspended ropes.Two robed figures cross a blue-lit medina courtyard at dusk, whitewashed patterned walls and other passers-by around.

Hong Kong

Elevated view down a wet Hong Kong avenue at dusk, rows of glowing neon signs, a taxi mid-road, hills in the haze.Silhouetted figures pass a glass shopfront at night, red paper lantern glowing warm against cool blue neon light.Close portrait of a bespectacled young woman glancing back on a neon-lit night street, blurred passers-by behind.Blurred night street scene through glass: a white car with headlights on, wet pavement, glowing red Chinese signage.