BeMuze

Photo-Anagram

A Photo-Anagram begins with a single photograph and creates a new work of art from it. The source photograph is the only element used. Nothing is added — no filters, no borrowed fragments, no second image. There's no AI in the art. Everything in the finished artwork was already there in the original source photograph.

It can draw an artistic beauty out of the horrors of life — war, poverty, catastrophe — holding the viewer long enough to ponder what they are seeing, and why. It can also mimic the cellular geometry found in nature. A single photograph, telling a visual story through its underlying beauty — one that any visitor can enter, and make their own.

One photograph. Endless artistic expressions of it.

What a Photograph Becomes

Fifteen photographs with nothing in common. Each one became the artwork within it.

A photograph of an ancient bamboo forest in Kamakura, Japan, shown above the Photo-Anagram artwork it became, created with the BeMuze app.

A photograph of two visitors at the San Francisco Main Public Library, from Ken Holden's Individual Personae collection, shown above the Photo-Anagram artwork it became, created with the BeMuze app.

A photograph of Maia and a friend at play, shown above the Photo-Anagram artwork it became, created with the BeMuze app.

A photograph of tropical fish shown above the Photo-Anagram artwork it became, created with the BeMuze app.

A photograph of the Pompidou Center in Paris, France, shown above the Photo-Anagram artwork it became, created with the BeMuze app.

A photograph of two family members posing with Maia, shown above the Photo-Anagram artwork it became, created with the BeMuze app.

A photograph of a dense city neighborhood in Shanghai, China, shown above the Photo-Anagram artwork it became, created with the BeMuze app.

A photograph of a stink bug on a branch shown above the Photo-Anagram artwork it became, created with the BeMuze app.

A photograph of abstract Ferris-wheel lights, from Ken Holden's Abstract Thoughts collection, shown above the Photo-Anagram artwork it became, created with the BeMuze app.

A photograph of an illuminated ceiling corner with a rotating color wheel at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, shown above the Photo-Anagram artwork it became, created with the BeMuze app.

A photograph of a butterfly on leaves shown above the Photo-Anagram artwork it became, created with the BeMuze app.

A photograph of boats on a canal in Venice, Italy, shown above the Photo-Anagram artwork it became, created with the BeMuze app.

A photograph of an illuminated wall with a rotating color wheel shown above the Photo-Anagram artwork it became, created with the BeMuze app.

For years I built each Photo-Anagram by hand in Adobe Photoshop — copying, rotating, and placing a single image against itself until the work emerged. It was slow, and it was deliberate. BeMuze does that same process automatically. The rule has not changed: one photograph, and nothing added.

Make Your Own

BeMuze is free and runs in your web browser, on a phone, a tablet, or a computer. Nothing to install, quick to learn. You choose a photograph, and the artwork you create begins to appear. No artistic training is required, and there is nothing to get wrong.

Try BeMuze

BeMuze Pro

BeMuze Pro is coming — a full application for desktops, laptops and tablets, with far greater control over how the artwork is refined. It asks more of a machine than a phone can give.

The rule does not change: one photograph, and nothing added.