Miles Astray, a photographer who works under a pseudonym and whose identity is unknown, nominated his photo Flamingone at the 1839 Awards international photography competition in the AI category, for images created with artificial intelligence software. Two days ago the winners were announced: Astray’s photo came in third place in the jury’s vote, and won the public prize.
Shortly after the announcement, however, the photographer revealed to the jury that the shot – which depicted a flamingo apparently without a neck or head, portrayed from behind and looking like a ball of pink feathers with two legs – was actually a real photo and not an image generated with artificial intelligence. The flamingo wasn’t really without a head and neck: it was just scratching its belly with its beak. The jury at that point disqualified Astray and reassigned the two prizes. It is the first time (as far as we know) that a real photo has won in a competition category intended for images created with artificial intelligence.
The photographer’s intent, as Astray explained on his personal website, was “to prove that photos taken by humans have not lost their relevance”, particularly after images made with artificial intelligence had recently surpassed real photos candidates in photography competitions.
Astray said he understood and fully supported the decision of the jury, made up of experts from, for example, the New York Timesfrom the photo agency Getty Images and the Christie’s auction house, as well as several art galleries. The photographer said he took the photo in Aruba and thought it was particularly suited to being mistaken for an image generated by artificial intelligence, “a surreal and almost unbelievable shot, yet completely natural.”
– Read also: Is this photo a real photo?
After admitting that he had sent a photo taken by a human being, the photographer received a response from the co-founder and director of the photography competition, Lily Fierman, which was “a big surprise” for him. Fierman, speaking for the entire jury, in fact shared Astray’s message: «We hope this brings awareness (and a message of hope) to many photographers worried about AI».
Last year the exact opposite happened: the German artist Boris Eldagsen sent a computer-generated image to the Sony world photography awards photography competition. Eldagsen – whose image was the first known one created with artificial intelligence to win an award in a category for photographs taken by humans – wanted to demonstrate how the world of photography competitions is not ready to face the comparison with generated images with AI. “If the amount of apparently real fakes in circulation continues to increase, it will be difficult to keep up with what is real and what is not,” he said in an interview with Guardian.
– Read also: Can images made with artificial intelligence compete in photo contests?
