Bas Uterwijk, a Dutch photographer, has created a series of images of famous people, including Jesus Christ, using AI (artificial intelligence).
Uterwijk’s photo of the Jesus most accurately depicts him with brown skin, brown eyes, and a short beard.
I made three! pic.twitter.com/1jk7lec25f
— Ganbrood (Bas Uterwijk) (@ganbrood) August 25, 2020
Uterwijk created three versions of Jesus, each with a subtle change in skin tone and hair length.
How did he do it?
Uterwijk used existing works depicting Jesus with software called Art Breeder, “which generates photorealistic images from multiple images.”
Teller Report‘s translation of a French article on Uterwijk’s Jesus photos share the following:
“For one of the images, I added a little historical truth,” he explains. “In one of the three versions, Jesus has shorter hair because historians do not believe that at that time, in the region of Galilee, in Israel, a man could have had hair so long.” …
“Sometimes I try to be as realistic as possible and sometimes I try to give a representation of how we perceive a character in history,” concludes the photographer.
Contrary to popular Western interpretations of Jesus’ appearance, researchers have long suggested that the historical Jesus likely had a brown or olive complexion and short hair. Popular images of the Christian Savior in the U.S. tend to resemble an Anglo, with blue eyes, pale skin, and long, flowing hair.
Uterwijk’s A.I.-generated portraits include dozens of well-known figures, including Napoleon, George Washington, and Vincent Van Gogh.
The images can be viewed on his Instagram account or on his website.