Closer #008
Eight weeks in. Time to evaluate early results and recalibrate accordingly. What other directions should we take this experiment in?
Field
Where observations begin: walking, traveling, observing, and gathering raw material in the real world.
Closer #007
Not to ruffle someone's feathers but a little birdie told me to continue this newsletter until the pecking order between us, beautifully flawed and inherently creative humans, and AI, the ever logical mimicker of life, has been determined. Who comes out on top this week?
Closer #006
By popular demand, ChatGPT gets pushed aside to give Midjourney its chance to shine. This is also the first time I'm using a self portrait as the base image. What do I look like according to AI?
Wandering with wonder
Four cities, thousands of images, endless new impressions, one additional newsletter. April, 2025, was a rich, full month that allowed me to tap into my wanderlust as well as organize my thoughts a little.
Closer #005
What happens when an image is described super accurately, to the point that you can picture the thing in your mind with ease? Does AI have the same skills?
Closer #004
On the surface, things seem to be looking good. But look more closely, and you'll find that fiction is, thankfully, still stranger than reality.
Closer #003
I purposely chose to share a relatively complex black and white image with ChatGPT for this week's entry. Lots of layers and many things going on in the frame. The black and white edit also provides the AI with less context. How does it perform?
Closer #002
Although AI perfectly describes my input photograph, it somehow isn't able to reproduce an image that's the same as the original.
Closer #001
A surprising start to this new experiment. Using one of my favorite portfolio images from 2023, ChatGPT both accurately describes as well as impressively generates an image based on my original work.
A weekend in Antwerp
Surely a city with many flaws, but none that I personally witnessed and/or impacted me during this trip. This city treated me well.
And the camera was there... 2025
A project started in 2021, continues in 2025.
I'm photographing to remember
A peek through my archive allows me to remember what a year it has been, again. It's easy to forget the details when you don't document them. Thankfully I do. This is my 2024 in review, using the b-side images that I never shared before.
When life gets ahead of you
It hasn’t been easy, but I refuse to complain. Please don’t take my writing as such. I’m just observing, recording, venting—trying to make sense of it all. And the result, so far? I'm bursting with energy, sometimes.
Ten years of photography and counting
Life was much simpler back then.
Conversion and parallels
With the power of sheer will I carry myself to the streets, into the early-fall sun that still has surprising strength if it manages to find you. 'No ambitious workout-like plans today,' I tell myself.
It's full of life, I promise
I am here to prove to people you don't need exciting city centers to make nice images, but the silence on these streets makes me almost second-guess myself. Maybe this place is actually boring...?
Hey, you're that guy!
"A newspaper that partly sticks out of a mailbox, a cat in the sun in someone's front garden or a lushly overgrown alley in the city. It is a selection of the photos that Mitchel Lensink (32) has taken in Amersfoort in recent years. His mission: photographing all the streets of the city."
Starting a new photo project
I have started a new photo project and each time I've told people so far, they've looked at me questioningly. I get that, but I don't think I'm crazy. Hear me out.