Photo that won third place in AI photo competition turns out to be a real photo
Photo competition 1839 Awards had a category for the best AI photo this year. Third place was won by a special photo of a flamingo hiding its head. However, there was a problem: the photo was taken by a photographer and was therefore not generated by AI.
The photographer, who works under the alias Miles Astray, took the photo in 2022 in Aruba. He entered the competition, specifically the AI category, to make a point, he says PetaPixel and Forbes. “I wanted to show that man can still beat the machine and that there is still merit in the real work of real creatives. After seeing recent examples of AI-generated images beating real photos in competitions, I considered turn the tables by submitting a real photo to an AI competition,” Astray said.
The judges, who work at The New York Times and Getty Images, among others, did not notice that the photo was real. After Astray was awarded third place, he admitted to the jury that his photo was real and explained his method. He photographed with a Nikon D750, converted the file from raw to jpeg with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and made other 'minimal adjustments'.
The organization disqualified the photographer and withdrew the photo the website of the photo competition. “We agree that the photographer has made an important and relevant point. However, after much internal discussion, we have decided to disqualify his entry into the AI category to take into account the other artists who submitted their work,” says Lily Fierman, director and co-founder of the 1839 Awards, told Forbes. Astray calls the decision 'completely justified and understandable' and is happy with the organization's response to its position.
Update, 3:05 p.m.: An earlier version of the article stated that the photo had won first place. However, this was wrong. Flamingone got third place. That is why the article has been changed.
Flamingone by Miles Astray