On June 13, it was reported that as AI image creation capabilities improve, AI-generated images have started winning awards in photography contests.
To address this trend, some well-known photography contests have established specific AI categories to prevent AI works from being mixed with traditional photography entries.
However, an unexpected twist occurred today. Photographer Miles Astray submitted his photo to the AI category of the prestigious 1839 Awards.
His piece, titled “F L A M I N G O N E,” unexpectedly won the Judges’ Bronze Award and the Audience Choice Award.
The issue is that this photo was not AI-generated but a real photograph of a flamingo. The angle made the bird appear headless, but it was indeed real.
Astray captured this photo in 2022 on a beach in Aruba, where flamingos roamed freely. He used a Nikon D750 camera with a 50mm fixed-focus lens, aperture f/1.8, and a shutter speed of 1/1600 seconds.
Before this article was published, the photo was listed on the 1839 Awards winners page, showing it had won the two awards.
However, the list has since been updated, and the bronze and audience choice awards now belong to two AI-generated images previously listed as “honorable mentions.”
Android Authority confirmed that the original page indeed showed “F L A M I N G O N E” as the winner of the two awards.
Notably, the judging panel for the award was impressive, including professionals from institutions like The New York Times, Christie’s Auction House, and Getty Images.
The organization behind the 1839 Awards, the Creative Resource Collective, issued a statement:
No institution believes in the power of photography more than we do. We have invited Miles Astray to collaborate with us on a blog post about this incident, his submitted work, and any statements he may share.
As an artist, his perspective will bring a different view to this topic. After intense internal discussions, we decided to disqualify his work from the AI category to respect other participating artists.
Our competition categories are clearly defined to ensure fair competition. Each category has different judging criteria, and entries must meet these criteria.
As he mentioned in his press release, his work does not meet the AI-generated image category requirements.
We understand his intent was to make a point, but we do not want to deprive other artists of the chance to win in the AI category. We hope this incident raises awareness among other photographers about AI’s implications.
Why did the photographer do this? Android Authority interviewed Astray to understand his intention behind submitting a real photo to an AI image contest. As expected, he explained:
Of course, I apologize for misleading the judges, but I believe they are professionals who can understand my questioning of AI technology and its ethical implications.
This issue is more important than the ethical question of deceiving the audience. I am pleased that this experiment confirmed my hypothesis: nothing is more magical and creative than nature itself.
I do not demonize this new technology and recognize its potential, but I now see its limitations and potential dangers more clearly.
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