The Smog Album — Trades

The Smog Album — Trades of India, 2080

In the Wellcome Collection I found an album of early-19th-century Indian "Company paintings": anonymous gouache studies of street trades like the water carrier, the cotton carder and the potter, each figure alone on cream paper with a soft shadow. I trained a Recraft V4 Style on five of its plates (all Public Domain Mark) and asked one question: what trades will that same street need in 2080 if India's air keeps getting worse? The Smog Album answers in the original artist's deadpan voice: the water carrier becomes an air carrier, the cotton carder beats soot out of purifier filters, and the bangle seller now fits brass nose filters. Same paper, same shadows, new air.