Lena Korolevich's 'Braids' Series Explores Masculinity Through AI Portraiture

Lena Korolevich's series 'Braids' uses AI-generated portraits to explore masculinity, vulnerability, and identity. The series features men of different ages, ethnicities, and skin tones, all united by the motif of braids, which symbolizes openness and inner courage, subtly challenging rigid masculine codes. Korolevich, a photographer turned AI artist, applies a photographic sensibility to the AI medium, emphasizing composition, framing, and emotional presence over technological spectacle. The portraits are characterized by clean backgrounds, restrained color, and close framing, creating a coherent sequence where difference does not disrupt unity. The realism serves not to mimic the visible world but to operate as a language, placing the viewer between the familiar and the constructed. The series is featured in creAtIva AI Art Book Vol/9 'ART: it is argument', which includes voice narrative and augmented reality video. The text was written by Wiktor V/R, founder and director of creAtIva | AI Art Book, and revised using AI tools. The work draws comparisons to Rineke Dijkstra's contemporary portraiture and Sally Potter's 'Orlando' for its treatment of identity as mutable. Korolevich demonstrates that AI can be a legitimate extension of photographic thought when guided by a clear authorial vision.