The Algorithm

Quinn Miller

The Algorithm, Digital photograph

Interview by C. VanWinkle
August 14, 2023

Let’s start from the beginning. What was the prompt you responded to?

It was a collage piece. I'm assuming it's from magazine cutouts, but it was a collective of a male figure with pears, which really struck my interest. And there were a lot of vibrant colors: there's oranges, purples, yellows as well.

What struck you about the pear?

My brain’s just always going and going and going, and I was thinking the other day about how a lot of people, classically, do still life paintings with fruit. I always joked around that I needed to do a photo with fruit at one point in my career, so when I saw the pear, I thought, “There it is. Gotta use the pear.” I think it's a cool juxtaposition compared to the classic usage of apples in imagery to represent Adam and Eve. It was cool to use a pear.

What does a purple pear represent?

Fun fact: purple is my least favorite color. So when I got the prompt, I thought, “Oh man, I need to put myself out there and use purple.” So I went and got purple paint and I knew I was going to make a commentary with it. Specifically in this piece, the pears represent the typical art that an artist creates. The piece is called “The Algorithm” because the idea is that you have the selection of artwork, in this case the pears. And they're not rotten, they're clean, they're good-looking. You're growing these amazing pears, but because of the algorithm, you feel that you have to paint over or modify your artwork to get those flashy colors that people like.

Even though the painting of the pear isn’t good, it’s rushed and incomplete, just because it’s purple, that's what the algorithm wants. The hand is reaching out, ignoring all the other amazing artworks that are there, like no, I want that.

Oh I feel that, for sure. This piece of fruit is already as it was meant be, as the artist intended, but you need to make it “better,” make it “content,” if people are going to enjoy it.

Correct.

How did you start your process?

I immediately knew I was going to do something with painting. Originally, the pear was going to be painted gold. You know, gold is the shiny, fancy color. I've also been playing around with night photography a lot; I just did a piece for my birthday and I had a lot of fun with it. So I almost went with nighttime photography, doing some surreal look with glowing pears.

I still wanted to do something with the algorithm. I've been really productive recently, and since I was pumping out a photo week, I got a lot of traction and found that if I don't post once a week, the numbers just drop. I think I felt a little frustrated about that. I typically sketch out my ideas before I do them, just to get them out of my head. [shows the sketch for this piece] I know, beautiful. Stunning work, I know.

It’s great!

So I had the original idea in my head. I knew I wanted hedges because I only had two weeks and my backyard has hedges. I came up with a lot of ideas, but they didn’t feel like me. Photoshop just came out with the generative fill, and so I said, “You know what, screw it. Let me just play around with this and see how it can benefit me.”

It’s very hot in South Florida and I thought, “I really don't want to sweat right now. Maybe I'll go outside really quick and take some sample photos before I actually go climb into my hedges.” So I just screwed around, playing with the generative fill. It helped me out a lot with understanding what the composition should or shouldn't look like. And then the next day, I went out and shot.

You shot the images you needed to then put them together digitally later. Was that a very involved process?

In theory, this is a very simple photo and it wasn’t really going to take a lot of effort. In theory. I always try to take more photos that I need, just in case. I can't stand re-taking photos. With this photo shoot, I had to, but that's my fault. My arm was just sticking out of nowhere. Yeah, I could have left it like that, but I didn't have enough foliage to make it look like it was actually coming out of the hedges. So I went back, reshot it, and then stitched it all together using Photoshop.

I wondered about that because this image doesn't look all that fussy and monkeyed with, but that doesn't mean it wasn't.

For sure, there's definitely a lot of nitpicking with it. The way that hand was posed originally more like a suggestion: “Hey, you should give this to me.” I'm thankful to have friends and my fiancée, who I asked for advice, and I was told that no, because we're talking about the algorithm taking, it should be a more aggressive hand pose coming out of the hedges.

How does this piece relate to the rest of your work?

Good question. All my pieces are created with a concept beforehand. I'm definitely conceptually driven in my work. Like you pointed out, I only had two weeks, so this potentially wasn’t going to be the best thing I’ve ever made in my life, so don’t sweat the small details. I like it. This was a good way for me to not overthink every little thing, even though I probably could have done five different ideas with this.

I like to say my work starts conversations, especially with this one, with a painted pear. People are definitely going to say, “I don't get it.” Maybe they do! I don't know. That's art, right?

From the work of yours that I've seen on the socials, you have sort of surreal subjects or elements, but it doesn't look like it takes place in a weird dimension. You seem to make surreal things look like they're naturally happening in the real world.

Oh, that is a great honor. That is truly my artistic goal in life. I’m inspired by Erik Johansson. His work is clearly photoshopped, but not because it looks fake. He takes those surreal elements and makes them look real because he's so good at creating accurate lighting, proportion, scale, and all that. But the viewer knows it has to be fake because of those really dreamlike elements. I do pride myself in doing as many things in camera as possible versus compositing and using other sources. So I appreciate that you recognize that.

Right on! You could make similar images that are 100% digital with no basis in reality, but you actually set this in your own backyard. Do you work outdoors much or in nature?

Yeah. I would say 90-95% of my photographs involve nature. Originally, a lot of my photos were taken where I grew up, a small town called Clewiston, just because the know the area so well. But I moved towns. I live in Lake Worth Beach now, and I don't know all of the special locations that I used to in my hometown. But I go to national parks a lot. A really fun thing that I've been doing is taking spontaneous photos in national parks, spur-of-the-moment. Some of my strongest pieces have become those works from national parks.

That's cool. You seem to be so prepared, with your concept and your preliminary sketch and your homework. Spur-of-the-moment sounds like a whole different adventure.

Oh yeah, it's daunting. The first time I ever did it was in Yosemite National Park and it was snowing. It had just snowed that morning and we were hiking through these trails. After like eight miles, I saw this amazing tree. It was massive! And there was a giant hole in it, and I thought, “Oh my gosh, I have to get in the tree! I have to take a photo! I have to!” That definitely inspired me to be more spontaneous and quickly think of a concept within those 5 to 15 minutes of shooting.

I've been practicing lately trying to work more spontaneously and let the process guide me. I want to let go of being such a control freak. I’m looking for the right balance there.

It's commendable, man. So many times, I have this idea of what it's going to be. Especially with photography, I'm literally capturing that moment. But what ends up happening is, as I'm photoshopping, I think, “Wait, maybe not.” I start to go into a different direction and I have to let go of that control. Here's the thing: no one's gonna know. It's not like I'm broadcasting, “Hey, guys, this is exactly what this is going to look like today. Better hold me to it!” But I enjoy showing the sketch. Eventually I’ll post this piece and show people that this is what I originally wanted, and then life happened.

How are you with deadlines?

I am great with deadlines imposed by other people because I have a fear of disappointing other people. However, this summer I tried really hard. I was very productive this summer and I'm very happy with what I did. It was a good trial run to see how it might go if I do someday become a full-time professional artist, instead of an artist on the side. It's hard, setting your own deadlines and keeping up to them. Being your own boss. So to answer that question, personal deadlines, oof. But deadlines imposed by other people, I'm phenomenal because I can't let others down.

I love deadlines because I get shit done. I don’t think I could trust myself to finish things without one.

See, that’s why I was so excited to participate in this project and get a prompt. I've been having this internal battle: Why am I not creating right now? What's stopping me from going outside right after this conversation and taking pictures, you know? The passion’s there, the ideas are there. Maybe what I need is to have someone in my life who says, “Alright, two weeks. You gotta create another piece.” To keep that accountability. That's actually a great idea!

Accountability can make an enormous difference for creative people. How do you like working from a prompt? For you, is it more limiting or more freeing?

What I'm about to say is very bold. You know the age-old curse of artists block? I joke around and say I have the opposite of it. I have just a flood of ideas. I know, I know, every artist is like, “Oh, screw you, bro!” [Cody laughs] Must be nice! I have over 600 ideas written down. I just keep going. I think the prompt is nice so I can get straight to the point. It's just too many ideas, so a prompt helps me get started.

I just have one more question. Now that you are on this side of this process, what is your advice to a new person just getting started?

I would say give it a day. Don't immediately put the pressure on yourself to create something because you have the two-week deadline. Sleep on it, look at it again with fresh eyes, and from there, start jotting down the key components of that image that speak to you. For me it was originally just a pear and three bold, vibrant colors. My work isn't really vibrant. It's a little desaturated, but I was drawn to that. So find those specific things that you're drawn to and then build off of that, and then just create the awesome art that you will.

Call Number: C104VA | C106VA.miAlgo

Quinn Miller was born and raised in Clewiston, FL. He discovered his love for photography during middle school when exposed to the work of Erik Johansson. This led him to pursuing an education in the arts, where he found himself at South Florida Community College and Florida Gulf Coast University, attaining a Bachelor's in the Arts. He currently resides in Lake Worth, FL and teaches art at the High School level.