I’ve become interested in using photographs as prompts for image-making with ChatGPT. I’ve now done quite a bit of this, but have only posted two groups so far, ChatGPT imagines three different backgrounds for three small sculptures, and Friday Fotos: ChatGPT changes Manhattan's West Side. In other posts I’ve used I’ve used a bit of art as a point of departure, such as this post based on a painting I did when I was nine: ChatGPT renders a scene on Mars in three styles.
This time I’ve decided to see what I can do with some of my graffiti photos. The fact is, when I first started tromping the hinterlands of Jersey City in search of graffiti, I felt like I was a ten-year old kid pretending to be Indiana Jones exploring some lost city. That’s what I’ve done in this series of images. I start with one of my graffiti photos and ask ChatGPT to continue the adventure. The adventure quickly heads off-planet to another world. At various points along the way I introduce other photos for reference. Rather than interrupting the flow of ChatGPTs imagery I simply insert an end note into the ongoing image stream and then introduce those photos in notes at the end, along with a note or two about the photo.
The starting point is from an area known locally as “the oaks.” Judging from the photo it’s a densely wooded area. Which it is, but only a very small patch. The bit of masonry you see at the right is the edge of a pillar supporting Exit 14C of the New Jersey Thruway. All of the pillars at this point are covered with graffiti at ground level. We’re at the foot of the Palisades and within one or two hundred yards of 12th Street, which feeds into the Holland Tunnel, which in turn goes under the Hudson River to Manhattan. Thus, this little jungle vignette is in one of the most densely populated urban areas in the United States.
Into the jungle
Note: Click on all images to enlarge them.
Imagine that we’re on an Indiana Jones adventure. We come to this spot and know that there’s the ruins of an ancient temple somewhere down that river. We start walking. What’s the next thing we see? But not the temple, not yet.
You hack at the trailing vines, and as they fall away you catch sight of something glinting in the dappled sunlight: a low stone plinth, half-submerged at the water’s edge, its top carved with a snarling, feline-headed guardian. The moss has nearly overtaken the bas-relief, but you can still make out its wide, carved eyes staring out at you, almost daring you to proceed farther downriver.
Beyond the plinth, a faint trail of broken pottery shards leads off into the undergrowth, and you can hear the soft drip of water echoing from somewhere ahead—perhaps a hidden grotto or the remnants of an old sluice that once fed the temple’s inner sanctum. A sudden breeze stirs the leaves, and you think you glimpse, deeper in the shadows, the jagged outline of what might be a toppled column, its capital half-buried under a tangle of roots.
Clearly, someone—or something—has been here before. You press on, your hand brushing against the jagged stone face of the plinth, heart hammering as you realize the real adventure is only just beginning.
Now, paint me a photo-realistic picture.
Here’s a photorealistic rendering of our jungle riverbank scene: a moss-covered feline-headed guardian plinth, broken pottery shards underfoot, and the hints of toppled temple columns drifting into the leafy shadows. Let me know what you’d like to explore next!
Very good. We move 100 yards along the right side of the river and the jungle begins to clear away. Draw me a picture of what we see.
Here’s our next scene: the riverbank clearing, with moss-covered steps leading up to a partially reclaimed stone entrance, all bathed in warm, golden light. Let me know where our adventure takes us next!
That must be it! Take me half way up the steps, looking at the entrance. There’s some paint on the walls here and there – pick some motifs from the original photo.
Here’s our close-up perspective, halfway up those mossy steps: a weathered archway etched with vibrant paint motifs inspired by that riverside graffiti. The warm sunlight and creeping vines frame the entrance—just on the threshold of discovery. What do you want to explore next?
Let’s go, say, 25 feet through the door. Light’s still coming from the entrance behind us. We’re in a large chamber. There’s a hole in the ceiling where light enters. There’s a strange object in the middle of the chamber. It looks like it might be a small scout ship from another world.
Here’s our latest discovery: a small alien scout ship bathed in golden shafts of light, sitting quietly in the stone chamber’s center. Let me know what you’d like to investigate next!
We’re now inside the scout ship, sitting in from of the instrument panel. It’s covered with writing and symbols like in this photo. [1]
You’re now seated at the control panel, the alien ship’s cockpit alive with bright, graffiti-like glyphs and tags scrawled across every button and screen, filtered through a cracked dome where jungle vines creep in. What’s your next move on this adventure?
Let’s imagine we take the scout ship up to the mother ship and then journey to the home planet. We’re in the mothership, docked at the home planet. We look out a window. What do we see?
You peer out the rounded viewport of the mothership’s docking bay and catch your first glimpse of the scout’s home world. Below you spreads a vast mosaic of iridescent turquoise oceans and swirling lavender continents, their edges rimmed with crystalline ice. Towering above the shoreline are spiraling spires of living metal—each one a shimmering fusion of architecture and organism, veins of bioluminescent energy pulsing through their translucent walls.
Beyond the cities, great ring-world fragments hover in the sky: relics of an ancient orbital network now repurposed into terraced farms and floating marketplaces. Twin suns hover at low angle, casting long, pale-gold shafts of light through a gauzy lavender atmosphere. Farther out, arc-shaped city-ships drift lazily in synchronous orbit, their hulls reflecting the wild colors of the planet below.
Across that panorama, countless tiny vessels—scouts, transports, couriers—dart like fireflies between the rings and the surface, weaving a living tapestry of movement. It’s at once serene and electric: a world reborn around the mystery of that single scout ship whose journey has brought you here.
Paint me a picture. Include signs and symbols like those in the photo.
Here’s a view from the mothership’s port window: the graffiti-adorned frame surrounding an alien world of lavender skies, turquoise seas, crystalline spires, ring fragments, and countless city-ships drifting beneath twin suns. Let me know if you’d like to explore any detail further!
Imagine we’re on the surface. We come across the ruins of a building complex from this planet. Use this photo as inspiration, but don’t attempt a direct copy. [2]
We in the interior in a large room. Use this photo as inspiration. [3]
Ummm, err...it looks like the stairs run right into a wall, which makes no sense. However, when you examine the reference photo you'll see that it is not clear what happens once you reach the top of the stairs..
We’re on the roof looking out over the city. Use this photo for inspiration, replacing the buildings the architecture indigenous to this alien world. [5]
Here’s the rooftop view over the alien metropolis: a graffiti-tagged wall at the left foreground, familiar rooftop crates and water towers, and a transcendent skyline of organic, luminescent towers, floating ring structures, and passerby scout ships soaring against twin suns. Let me know what you’d like to do next!
Use this photo for an image of an interior courtyard in our building. [6]
This is another view from the roof of the building. Use this photo for inspiration.[7] The man on the ladder should be wearing a space suit.
Here’s the new rooftop scene inspired by that photo: an astronaut in a classic spacesuit scaling the side ladder of our alien complex, with both familiar brick walls and a futuristic skyline of organic towers and twin suns beyond. What would you like to do next?
This story continues with The Verdant Sovereign Awakes: 51 Pacific Rises from the Ashes, May 7, 2025.
Notes on the reference photos
[1] This graffiti is from the base of another of those supporting pillars. This is typical of the graffiti in that area. Depending on how you do the count, there must be upward of 50 such pillars. The first time I walked between those pillars I felt like I was in some lost Egyptian temple decorated by artists who were tripping on ayahuasca or LSD.
[2] This is from the remains of a small industrial building that was covered with graffiti inside and out. I called it “The Urban Design Center.” It’s in a different part of town from those support pillars. It’s near the remnants of the old Morris Canal in downtown Jersey City where the canal meets the Hudson River.
[3] This is from the so-called “Demolition Exhibition” that the Green Villain, a Jersey City curator, staged in a Pep Boys store that was about to be demolished to make way for new construction. Over a hundred graffiti writers covered the building with graffiti inside and out. I serve as “spiritual advisor” to the Villain.
[4] This is from a stairway in a building where the Green Villain has a loft they use for various purposes, including late night parties. It’s in a building that used to house the Clorox Company, but has now been demolished. That stairway opens onto the roof.
[5] This is one view from the top of that building, at 51 Pacific Ave. in Jersey City. The skyscrapers in the far distance are at the southern end of Manhattan. The tallest one, under construction, is One World Center, one of the building that replaces the old World Trade Center Complex. The tall building to its left is the Goldman Sachs Building in Jersey City. At the time it was the tallest building in New Jersey. I don’t know off-hand whether or not that’s still true. It was designed by César Pelli, who designed the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia.
[6] An abandoned building on Fairmount Ave. in Jersey City.
[7] This is taken on the top of The Sterling, at 15 Wilkenson Ave. in Jersey City. The man in the photo is my friend, Greg, who is the rental agent for the building, a former textile mill which is being rented as a space for makers and creatives. That’s Jersey City in the middle ground and Manhattan in the distance. The group of skyscrapers to the left is Hudson Yards, which is built on a platform above railroad yards.
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