You all have probably read and seen that the prestigious Sony World Photography Awards had quite a flop regarding the winner of the Creative Open Category, which was won by an AI-generated image. The winning shot framed two women from different generations in a black-and-white composition.
German photographer Boris Eldagsen exposed on his website that he would not be snapping up the prize for the creative open category, which he won at the Sony world photography awards. He also exposes how he tried to contact the organizers and the way they dealt with the issue (I’ll not write my opinion, read Boris’ story and form yours 😇). Boris was kind enough to allow me to post this and include his stunning award-winning-and-then-not image.
In a statement on his website, Eldagsen, who studied the art of capturing light and visual arts at the Art Academy of Mainz, conceptual art and intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, and fine art at the Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication in Hyderabad, admitted he “applied as a cheeky monkey” to see if competitions were ready to zoom in on AI-generated images. “They are not,” he added. I love how he puts it, in his own words:
“Thank you for selecting my image and making this a historic moment, as it is the first AI generated image to win in a prestigous international PHOTOGRAPHY competition.
How many of you knew or suspected that it was AI generated? Something about this doesn’t feel right, does it?
AI images and photography should not compete with eachother in an award like this. They are different entities. AI is not photography. Therefore I will not accept the award.I applied as a cheeky monkey, to find out, if the comeptitions are prepared for AI images to enter. They are not.
We, the photo world, need an open discussion. A discussion about what we want to consider photography and what not. Is the umbrella of photography large enough to invite AI images to enter – or would this be a mistake?
With my refusal of the award I hope to speed up this debate.Having been a photographer for 30 years before I turned to AI, I understand the pros and cons of this debate and will be happy to join the conversation.
If you dont know what to do with the prize, please donate it to the fotofestival in Odesa, Ukraine. I will happily provide you the contacts.
Many thanks
Boris Eldagsen at his website
Boris”
I must confess that I agree with Boris, the photography world and competitions are NOT ready, we need to grow and evolve WITH AI. First, we need to agree and realize that it is a brand new form of image creation, call it “Promptography” if you will (this name has been around, I did not come up with it).
And then, come on Sony, the image is gorgeous but didn’t you really notice that the image was AI-generated? This really makes me wonder how you guys evaluate the hordes of images heading your way. Look at the hands, AI’s very weak point at this time. If the organizers wanted to post excuses for not noticing the artificial ingredients – as they seem to have done – they should at least have said that the image was so beautiful that they couldn’t see anything else 🤓.
The reason I bring this here is that I believe this shines a bright light on the debate we have been carrying out within our group and that will take place on Monday’s Online Meeting. In my humble opinion, it is nonsense to try to fight the new tech, it will be as pointless as the debate between phone photography and “real photographers” that was hyped not too long ago. Posing ourselves against it is as pointless as a typewriter seller trying to fight computer sales, it is time to discuss, learn and adapt. There is a new balance to be found and there is certainly enough space for all, especially if we understand and establish the differences, boundaries and similarities.
Yes, similarities! As Boris wrote and did, his experience led him to be able to produce such an image with AI. Without his photo knowledge, it would be just AI trying to get lucky, and that would be almost like asking the ancient Microsoft Clip to write your PhD Thesis and nobody would do it, or would someone?
“With my rejection of the award, I hope to fast-forward this debate.”
Boris Eldagsen
Debate is what I consider the right way forward. AI is here. Read it again: AI IS HERE and it will evolve very fast. We need to understand this, adapt and focus on the new, not fight to be a Flintstone in a Jetson era. There are countless possibilities to use AI to improve, automate, simplify tasks and get more done. AI will also reduce the barriers that kept many people from generating content, it can be an aspiring novelist who did not have great grammar skills, an inspired painter who has an allergy to paint (I know one!) or even someone who has loads of creative images inside a wicked brain and cannot operate a camera.
Of course, there is a flip side! There is huge potential to use it for the bad. Mindless creation can easily and fast lead to mediocrity and a tsunami of nonsense content. Just observe any of the free servers from BlueWIllow or MidJourney and you will see it with your own eyes. Even one of the best Photoshop trainers I have ever seen, Jesús Ramirez from the phenomenal PTC YouTube Channel, spent hours on Adobe Firefly‘s community live event creating nonsense images that were just a huge waste of water (yep, training and using AI models burns oceans of water!). And there is the ever-growing fear that AI might get out of control and launch Skynet, bring Schwarzenegger back (he promised he would be back, didn’t he? 🤣) and overall develop Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), as OpenAI’s and Microsoft’s biased paper proposed recently.
What is your take on this? Please let me know in the comments below, shoot me a message or – even better – join our upcoming event to share your thoughts and join the discussion AI versus Creators, are we heading to dystopia or utopia?
You can also interact with our group on our Facebook Group, Discord Channel, Photo Walks Meetup group, and Training Meetup group.
