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The Vulgar Image by Dean Kissick

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AI is co-spawning a visual culture beyond any imagination. Will an overthrow of good taste re-vest pictures with their mysterious power? Or are we chasing our machines into pastiche hell? — This text was originally published in print in our Summer 2025 issue, Vulgarity – There is too much beauty in the world. There is too much beauty and there are more beautiful people than there have ever been, and they are generally beautiful in the same way. With trompe l’oeil make-up, fillers, and photo editing, they have given themselves the same face and made same kinds of images of themselves. They are becoming images. They tend toward the same ideal (worked out, contoured, airbrushed, fake) image, they bombard the world with that image relentlessly, every day, and that image continues to infinity. In Soho in London last winter, I had dinner with a beauty editor, a stylist, and a fashion photographer. The photographer, showing us something on her phone, casually observed that her Instagram for y

The Vulgar Image by Dean Kissick Truth Terminal by Beeple (Twitter: @beeple ), 2024 Essay The Vulgar Image By Dean Kissick Issue 84 | Summer 2025 AI , Internet Culture , Digital Image AI is co-spawning a visual culture beyond any imagination. Will an overthrow of good taste re-vest pictures with their mysterious power? Or are we chasing our machines into pastiche hell? — This text was originally published in print in our Summer 2025 issue, Vulgarity — There is too much beauty in the world. There is too much beauty and there are more beautiful people than there have ever been, and they are gene

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