Professionally Speaking » North of England Way…

Inspired by Jeanette Winterson’s and Fiona Hill’s books about their escape from dead-end childhood homes in the north of England, I experimented with the generative AI tool, Midjourney.

First, what would my life have been like if I never left my hometown of Crewe?

PROMPT: <my photo> in a bleak north of England town with rain falling –stylize 1000 –v 5

(Click all photos to enlarge)

This prompt used the latest Midjourney version 5 which was released on Wednesday March 14 to acclaimed levels of ‘stunning’ photo-realism. I certainly found that to be true in the mod of my own photo which looked eerily like Crewe on a rainy day. Friends on Facebook (who did not see the side-by-side comparison), commented that the chap-in-the-cap seemed grim.

In response, I created these variations of the image on the right above:

PROMPT: <IMG from 1st iteration> bemused smile and distant look –v 5

Interesting to see the gender fluidity that crept in.

This was something I’d seen in earlier experiments with a picture of a much younger me (I’m guessing Bristol in 1978 or California very early 80s) which went through a rather rapid series of revisions that rival Bowie at his glam best:

PROMPT: <my photo> accurate minute details SSAA anti-aliasing max-graphics ultra-quality post processing 8k HD HDR XDR mods, cinematic fantasy bokeh background, soft bloom lighting, edge lights halation::5 ugly, old, grumpy, twisted, odd, average, low-quality, low-poly-count, low-settings, Square-blocky-anatomy, fat, round, squinting, smoothing, small-eyes, long-anatomy, wide-anatomy, stretched-anatomy, flat-face, plastic, split multi view, flat-nose, long-head::-1 text, ui, descriptions, names, words, letters, magazine, titles, captions, labels, signatures, poster, announcement, logo, ads, advertisements::-1 –stylize 800 –ar 2:3

Enough.

Back to true north. I was next prompted (so to speak!) to experiment with factory girls (figuratively, of course), in honor of the Beatles “She was a working girl / North of England way…”

PROMPT: factory girl in north of England street shot on Tri-X 400 –ar 16:9 –v 5

I borrowed the [camera style] add-on from Midjourney expert Nick St. Pierre on Twitter who posts a wide range of his informative and educational experiments — and where I first learned that version 5 was available.

From here it was a short JOURNEY to a series of less-than-successful attempts to capture the gritty reality of northern life:

PROMPT: Working class men fishing on a canal in the north of England in the 1950s , shot on Tri-X 400 –ar 16:9 –v 5

PROMPT: a crowd of factory workers leaving work on bicycles in north of England town, shot on Tri-X 400 –q 2 –v 5

Dirty Old Town

I moved on to experiment with a couple of folk songs from the 1960s that are anthems to life up North.

The classic ‘Dirty Old Town‘ by Ewan MacColl was written about Salford, Lancs, a short 30 miles north of Crewe. I started with a prompt that tried to summarize the theme of the song:

PROMPT: teenage couple embrace in north of England 1950s with gasworks in background shot on Tri-X 400 –ar 16:9 –v 5

There’s great photo-realism, but the gasworks are not actually what you’d find in Salford or Crewe. I then simply used the lyrics of the first stanza and see what Midjourney made of it. The results were nothing short of astounding:

PROMPT: I met my love by the gas works wall Dreamed a dream by the old canal I kissed my girl by the factory wall Dirty old town, shot on Tri-X 400 –ar 16:9 –v 5

We see the embrace by the canal and the weathered brick wall. There’s no gasworks, but, actually, the lyrics only say they were ‘by the gasworks wall’. Game, set, and match to Midjourney!

Homeward Bound

Having started my JOURNEY thinking about the old home town, it seemed appropriate to end by trying to capture the mood of Simon & Garfunkle’s classic song, written on Widnes railway station.

PROMPT: A teenage boy with a guitar case sitting on a railway platform in the north of England in 1960 shot on Tri-X 400 –ar 16:9 –v 5

As others have noted, version 5 gets the number of fingers correct (earlier versions often showed hands with 6+ fingers or missing thumbs). However, once again, just feeding in the lyrics is FAR more effective:

PROMPT: I’m sittin’ in the railway station Got a ticket to my destination On a tour of one-night stands My suitcase and guitar in hand And every stop is neatly planned For a poet and a one-man band, shot on Tri-X 400 –ar 16:9 –v 5

The one downside to Midjourney is how addictive it becomes. However, others might not agree. Share your thoughts in the Comments below.

North of England Way…

Dirty Old Town

Homeward Bound

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