AI-powered 1980s photo trend takes social media by storm
Hyderabad : Social media platforms are witnessing a surge in AI-generated photographs that give present-day images the look and feel of the 1980s. From celebrities to ordinary users, people are using artificial intelligence tools to recreate vintage-style portraits and sharing them online.
The trend has spread across platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, with users turning their recent photographs into retro images using applications such as Gemini, ChatGPT and Grok.
Bell-bottoms, big collars bring back 1980s fashion
The AI-generated images recreate the fashion and settings associated with the 1970s and 1980s, including bell-bottom trousers, large-collared shirts, colourful outfits, classic hairstyles and oversized sunglasses.
Users are also creating photographs in which they appear with books in their hands, standing in front of old buildings or beside vintage scooters and cars. School and studio-style settings, along with muted colours, analogue grain and soft focus, are being used to give the images an older appearance.
Instead of merely applying a vintage filter, users are asking AI tools to alter clothing, hairstyles, accessories, backgrounds and other elements while retaining the original face, skin tone and expressions.
Tollywood stars join the retro photo wave
The trend has also caught the attention of Tollywood celebrities and film personalities. AI-generated images featuring Prabhas, Gopichand, Mahesh Babu, Pawan Kalyan, Ram Charan and Jr NTR in retro settings are being widely shared on social media.
Director Meher Ramesh shared an AI-generated vintage-style image with Pawan Kalyan and posted, “Forever OG.” The post subsequently attracted attention on social media.
Politicians also get AI-generated vintage makeovers
The trend has extended beyond the film industry, with AI-generated vintage images of political leaders also circulating online.
An AI-created image depicting Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy as he might have looked during his college days was widely shared on social media. Similar retro-style images featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Union ministers G Kishan Reddy and Piyush Goyal, and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor have also appeared online.
Congress member Renuka Chowdary, meanwhile, said she did not need artificial intelligence to recreate an old photograph and shared an original photograph of herself featured on the cover of a magazine.
Simple prompts create the vintage effect
Users can generate the look by giving detailed prompts to AI tools. One such prompt asks the application to retain the person’s face, skin tone, expressions and original features while transforming the photograph into an authentic 1980s retro image.
The prompt also asks the AI to change the clothing, hairstyle and accessories to match the period, add analogue grain, slightly faded colours and soft focus, and retain a natural body shape.
It further instructs the AI to remove smartphones, modern clothing and other contemporary objects so that the image resembles a photograph taken during the 1980s rather than a present-day picture with a vintage filter.
The trend has brought a new use for generative AI on social media, allowing users to recreate imagined versions of themselves in the fashion and settings of an earlier era.
