A South African model has an Instagram audience of more than 130,000 followers on her account, but there’s a quality that makes her unique from other models: she’s computer-generated.
Cameron-James Wilson, a London-based photographer and visual artist, designed Shudu with computer-generated imagery (CGI), he told Cosmopolitan. Shudu, given a name based on the Ndebele people in South Africa, is supposed to be in her mid- to late-20s and even has her own Instagram account with 130,000 followers.
Wilson received past criticism from different media outlets like Blazed and The New Yorker for creating a black model since he is white. He said using hashtags that referred to Shudu’s skin color caused controversy since he is white. One hashtag he used was #Melanin, according to The New Yorker.
He now focuses on technology hashtags for Shudu’s Instagram captions.
“I made a point to change them and to make my hashtags very specific to what Shudu is about. Now, they’re all very much 3D and CGI — things like that,” Wilson said.
Wilson added that he is trying to bring more diversity to the fashion world with the use of technology. However, almost five times as many white women than black women were on the covers of 44 different fashion magazines in 2014, according to the Fashion Spot report. (RELATED: Check Out ‘Dolce And Gabbana’ Fashion Designer’s Best Comebacks Against Political Correctness)
Wilson said CGI can also help busy models book more gigs in one day and even extend their careers — not only helping them be in more than one place at the same time, but also digitally preserving their looks long into the future.