an ode to the anti_cgi instagram account
For years now, on the Explore section of Instagram, I have a select group of go-to accounts reserved for easy access, since whenever I hit the Search bar they’re already there. The specific accounts on this group have varied over the years, depending on my interests at any given point in time, but there is one account that has had a consistent presence in the group: anti_cgi. The page is run by Miami artist Aramis Gutierrez, and, as its name suggests, focuses on stills from film and television, predominantly genre fare like exploitation, horror, and comedy, that feature no CGI in them (the stills themselves, that is, not the works as a whole when it comes to more modern films & TV). This results in an Instagram page populated with the types of imagery that are rarely seen nowadays; snapshots of bygone eras. For a piece on Vice, Gutierrez notes on the account’s “anti CGI” mission statement that:
“I think the issues surrounding CGI go deeper than merely filling in as a representation for the real thing… When you can render just about anything you want, it eliminates the ‘box’ of pragmatism and the means you were facing prior to digital technology. It took a tremendous amount of creativity and care to come up with solutions that were plausible and also meant that FX shots were shorter and left more to the imagination”
It’s this sense of roughness and materiality that really draw me to the images on this Instagram, and how these shots really cater to my imagination. The single images of films being presented make me not only examine what’s being presented in this single second of a whole work, but wonder what else this film or TV show offers and think about how this single image inspires me or how and why I find it beautiful. anti_cgi contains in its grid tens of thousands of these images, together creating a sort of retrograde vibe. I get lost in the collection of all this practical imagery.
I get lost on the shot compositions, how the images and actors are lit, on the fantasy and sci-fi costuming, on the prosthetic work and creature design, on the filmic texture of the images, on the architecture of the sets, on the salacious ways women used to be shot (which I personally kind of love). Its an impeccable vibe.
Due to advances in filmmaking technology, changing social mores, shifts in the industry, and frankly a lack of curiosity, film & television really doesn’t look like this anymore. I can easily get lost on the utter vibe portal that is anti_cgi.
What’s old often becomes new again, so hopefully the modes of filmmaking exhibited on anti_cgi get an earnest revival sometime in the future. The charm of the retrograde and outdated is itself this sense of outdatedness. For example, filmmaking is so removed and distanced from the type of imagery that can be considered to be “male gaze-y” that what used to be common, un-notable methods of shooting female characters are now made subversive and shocking.
anti_cgi is an incredible study on tactile filmic creativity that I’m not entirely sure I can explain in words. Everything feels so grotesquely beautiful and I want to put every piece featured on my watchlist. The collection of all these works creates this sleazy, touchable energy. Its a gauzy scheme of textured neutrals, reds, greens, and pinks, and I fall right in every time I log on.
