Google Pixel and SN37 announced the 29 artists of Creator Labs Season 8. This season is the first one that includes artists from outside the United States, such as Campbell Addy, Gabriel Moses, Justin French and Furmaan Ahmed. Creator Labs is a visual arts incubator, a space in which artists can express themselves creating new cultural narratives. Born out of a partnership between Google and SN37, it allows photographers and artists to document personal work based on a social cause.
In this season, creators were invited to analyse what it meant to be one-of-one, unique in voice vision. All of the images were created on the Google Pixel 8 Pro. The artists had the opportunity to experiment with the Pixel Pro camera s Pro controls, which provide more creative control (being able to manually adjust shutter speed, ISO, focus.) They could also try out the new Magic Editor tool, which uses generative AI to reposition, resize more.
This Season’s creators are: Aidan Cullen, Amber Grace Johnson, Adrian Octavius Walker, Andrew Thomas Huang, Andy Jackson, Anthony Prince Leslie, Campbell Addy, Chiara Gabellini, Coyote Park, Cruz Valdez, Dana Scruggs, Furmaan Ahmed, Gabriel Moses, Glassface, June Canedo de Souza, Justin French, Kennedi Carter, Lawrence Agyei, Lelanie Foster, MaryV, Mayan Toledano, Myesha Evon Gardner, Myles Loin, Natalia Mantini, Neva Wireko, Pegah Farahmand, Shikeith, Texas Isaiah, and Tim Kellner.
We collected some quotes from the participants to better understand what this project has meant for them.
The Creator Labs program allows us to amplify voices and communities that do not receive enough widespread attention. This collaboration allowed me to think about creating a series of portraits that are raw and honest, whilst thinking of the impact the individuals in my frame make in the world.
This project spotlights a community I inhabit, and it is imperative in changing the narrative of marginalized people. I was inspired by the people I encountered during my travels to West Africa this year. They were welcoming, open and loving, all the while making changes or upholding change in their own communities. This project is an opportunity for me to give back. Creatively I wanted to capture the essence and beauty of these people in the most photojournalistic manner possible.
Inspired by the celtic lore of the selkie women, this documentation was a collaboration between myself and artist Soojin Chang, shot on the volcanic coast of Cornwall. The project was born from the pain and wonderment of being part of the diaspora in the UK and understanding our identities in lands that would be foreign to our ancestors. When thinking about what makes us unique as part of the creator labs project, it is the constant changing hybridity that myself and so many in my community possess. To be from two lands, of two genders and from two bodies.
We set out to create a new kind of folk image archive, based not on facts but on memories, aided with the accessibility of the Google Pixel. A retelling of the past through new voices. To rewrite British folk stories and mythologies by placing queer, trans, black and brown people at the center of these histories, customs and rites. To help us reconnect with the landscape around us and think about the future of folk.
Being supported by Creator Labs to create this work was vital in being able to tell our story for everyone involved in the project. The project gave us the freedom and space to tell a story and really think about how we are documenting, archiving and mythologising our histories in a digital and futuristic context. Working with the Google Pixel added a kind of futuristic layer to creating these archival images - for its such an accessible medium. I really found the pixel a powerful tool to give myself and my collaborators agency to retell stories that have been quite inaccessible for hundreds of years.
Our heartfelt congratulations to Kennedi Carter, Anthony Prince Leslie, Mayan Toledano, and Myesha Evon Gardner who took part of the A.I. Symposium in Milan in the talk “When Creativity Meets Technology: A Conversation with Creator Labs artists Google Pixel at PhotoVogue Festival” during the days of the PhotoVogue Festival.
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