Latent Bloom

Latent Bloom is a photobook by Jack Latham made with a deep-learning algorithm, which was given photographs of flowers and reimagined their details into new images.

Latham fed flower photographs collected during lockdown into the algorithm, which used unsupervised deep learning to identify and rework details from them. Critical writing on photography was processed the same way, so that the text also comes from the algorithm. The book pairs 125 images with 125 text excerpts. Here Press published it in 2020 with Images Vevey as a paperback of 110 × 180 mm in an edition of 250, each with a unique signed print. It was shown as Beggar's Honey, Chapter 1: Latent Bloom at Festival Images Vevey in September 2020.

Latham's other books include Sugar Paper Theories (2016), Parliament of Owls (2019) and Beggar's Honey (2023). A musical piece based on Latent Bloom, composed by Lloyd Coleman, was performed by Paraorchestra at the Barbican in London in May 2022.