Photography as Art: Homage to Vermeer, Fine Art, and a Dialogue with AI

Chapter I. My Path to Fine Art: 

Anna Krauklis School

It all started with the Fine Art Pro course at the Anna Krauklis School of Contemporary Photography. A course that promised to teach how to create “photo paintings.” And it delivered.

What I Learned

We were immersed in a vast body of knowledge:

• history of art and painting
• color and light theory
• composition of the old masters
• working with props and costumes
• editing secrets that bring photos closer to paintings

But most importantly, we were taught to see. To see the frame as an artist, not just as a photographer.

Practice and Support

A special kind of magic on the course was the chat. There, before everyone’s eyes, with advice from instructors, genuine masterpieces emerged from “unclear” works. It was incredibly inspiring.

I am grateful to my friends Nadezhda and Dmitry Mikhalkchuk for their help during shoots. It was in their space, “Timofeeva Land, ” that I could experiment and put my newfound knowledge into practice.

And the course gave me one more skill: the ability to create an image from almost nothing. When the right costume isn’t at hand, imagination, draping fabric, and unexpected objects come into play. This is freeing and teaches you to improvise.

Chapter II. Homage to Jan Vermeer:

 “Girl with a Pearl Earring”

Hommage is not a copy. It is gratitude, a sign of respect, a work in dialogue with an artist.

When it came time to choose a theme for my coursework, I immediately thought of Vermeer. His “Girl with a Pearl Earring” is one of the world’s most recognizable paintings. That glance over the shoulder, that light, those lips ready to speak… I wanted to touch that mystery.

Our Interpretation

Tanya Vishneva was our model. Our goal wasn’t to create an exact replica. We wanted to convey the spirit—that quintessential Vermeer atmosphere.

How we worked:

• Light. We studied how Vermeer worked with light—soft, enveloping, almost tangible. It’s not Rembrandt’s light with its dramatic contrasts. Vermeer’s light is quiet, intimate.
• Color. The famous combination of ultramarine and yellow, deep shadows, pearlescent highlights.
• The Gaze. That specific intrigue—she turns to the viewer but doesn’t reveal everything.

The Result

I don’t know if you can feel it, but for me, this experience was an important milestone. Understanding a great artist through attempting to recreate their work is a very special experience. It’s not just a photoshoot; it’s a meditation on art.

Chapter III. Russian Beauty and a Dialogue with Artificial Intelligence

We were photographing a beautiful woman from Tyumen with a luxurious braid in a modern city apartment. A regular studio shoot, a beautiful image. But during editing, I decided to experiment.

I generated a background using a neural network. The prompt was simple: “Russian girl in a Russian izba”.

An Unexpected Discovery

Then something astounding happened. The artificial intelligence (not a Russian one, mind you) placed… BOOKS next to the girl based on this prompt.

Think about it: a neural network, trained on millions of images from around the world, associates a Russian girl in an izba with books. Not with moonshine, not with a bear, not with a balalaika. But with books.

For me, this was a true revelation. It turns out that in the global cultural code, Russia is a reading nation. Even artificial intelligence “knows” this.

Something to Be Proud Of

This photograph now reminds me: genuine culture breaks through even algorithms. We can be proud that in the world’s associative chain, Russia is not only matryoshka dolls and frost. It is also Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky. It is books.

Thus, a random experiment turned into a profound dialogue between technology and cultural codes.              

Epilogue

Three stories. Three approaches to creating an artistic image:

• through studying the great masters
• through paying tribute and trying to understand
• through experimenting with new technologies

All of these are facets of the same process. The process of seeking beauty and meaning.

Do you like this kind of fantastical, imaginative photography? Or do you prefer reality?

My name is Svetlana Kornelyuk, I am a photographer in In Yekaterinburg, I create portraits in the fine art style, artistic photography, and experiment with light and technology. Shooting in the studio or on location — let’s make your story come true!