Alper Yesiltas and the fourth piece of his “As If Nothing Happened,” brings Tupac Shakur back to life in 2022.
Turkish artist, Alper Yesiltas “misses” many well known public figures and for this reason his “As If Nothing Happened” was born. “With the development of AI technology, anything imaginable can be shown in reality. So when I started tinkering with technology, I thought about what would make me the happiest. I wanted to see some of the people I missed again in front of me and that’s how As If Nothing Happened emerged,” Yesiltas said speaking to The National.
Yesiltas, also an IT lawyer, has Michael Jackson, Freddie Mercury, Amy Winehouse and Princess Diana included in his series. In fact, it was Yesiltas’ Princess Diana image which made many take notice. Sharing the image of Princess Diana days after the demise of Queen Elizabeth II, showcases the late Princess at the age of 61, as if nothing happened. The image has over 30,000 likes on Instagram.
Another iconic figure’s image shared to his 100K plus followers, is hip hop artist Tupac Shakur. Passing away at the age of 25, Alper Yesiltas uses a combination of software to show the world what Tupac would look like now in 2022. Tupac would have been 51 years old. Although Yesiltas says he likes when the “image in front of me feels ‘real’, many Instagram users were not a fan of Tupac’s image.
Many in the comments section on Instagram stated Tupac would not have aged as he was portrayed by the Turkish artist. Others said Tupac looked 80 years old rather than 51. And, some also noted that those who are of similar age as Tupac (Jay-Z, Nas and Snoop Dogg) do not look as if they had aged much, leaving many to wonder why Tupac would have aged that much more.
Regardless, the talented artist Alper Yesiltas does not mind the feedback, in fact he encourages it. Not all of the images for his “As If Nothing Happened” series has been hit with negative responses, which has the artist hopeful for the future. “But in general, I can say that people’s reactions have encouraged me for the future,” he said to The National.
