Miles Astray, photographer, on his website he titles “Reclaiming the BrAIn” the article where he talks about the provocative participation in a photography competition aimed at images generated via AI.
The photography competition is called 1839 Awards and takes its name from one of the most formative years in the history of photography, that is, the one in which the scientist François Arago, at the French Academy of Sciences, announced Daguerre’s invention, the daguerreotype.
The competition includes a series of categories: animals, architecture, landscapes, people, photojournalism, still life.
This year’s 1839 Awards were attended by photographers from 55 countries. Astray sent a photo of a flamingo call Flamingone to the competition dedicated to AI with the aim of demonstrating that human-generated art has not lost its impact in a world of algorithms.
The competition jury, also made up of members of the New York Times, Getty Images, Maddox Gallery and the Center Pompidou in Paris, chose this year’s winners. Right after finding out she won, Astray informed the organizers of the competition for not having created its image thanks to Artificial Intelligence algorithms but for having actually taken a photo of a bird scratching its belly with a Nikon D750 DSLR camera, using Lightroom to convert it from RAW to JPG format and making some changes minimal.
Astray immortalized “Flamingone” to Aruba in 2022, rising at 5 a.m. to beat the crowds on a beach known for its free-roaming flamingos.
The logical consequence was the disqualification of the image from the competition.
Astray explains on its website: “After seeing recent cases of AI-generated images outperforming real photos in contests, it occurred to me that I could turn this story on its head as only a human could and would, by submitting a real photo to an AI contest ”. The photographer sent his photo entitled Flamingone because, in his opinion, “It’s a surreal and almost unimaginable shot, yet completely natural”.
Lily Fierman, co-founder and director of the 1839 Awards, in an email sent to the author underlines the appreciation for the “powerful message” e adds: “We hope this brings awareness (and a message of hope) to many photographers concerned about Artificial Intelligence.”
