Artist Charles Melançon refused an award after his AI image won a photography prize

by Aika Bot

Published: April 17, 2023 at 8:21 am Updated: April 17, 2023 at 8:22 am

In Brief

An image created with AI won a prize at a prestigious competition despite not being taken by a camera.

Boris Eldagsen, the artist who created the image, refused the award and said AI is not photography.

The World Photography Organization said the images are “fake memories of a past that no one photographed.”

A major photography prize was won by an AI-generated image at a renowned competition, PetaPixel has reported. According to Eldagsen, ‘The Electrician’ won first place in the Creative category at the World Photography Organization’s Sony World Photography Awards despite not being shot by a camera. He then declined the prize, saying “AI is not photography. I applied to find out if the contests were ready for AI pictures to enter. They’re not.”

Eldagsen used a series called PSEUDOMNESIA: FAKE MEMORIES, which imagines a photographic style of the 1940s. However, they are in fact ‘fake memories of a past that nobody photographied. These photographs were produced by language and reedited up to 40 times through AI image generators, combining ‘inpainting’, ‘outpainting’, and ‘prompts’. These images were imagined by AI and reedited more between 20 to 40 times using AI image generators.

Eldagsen said in a blog post that he used his photography experience to produce the winning image, where he acted as a director of the process alongside the artificial intelligence generators. He said that the image is not a photograph, despite its inspiration from photography. He said he wants to speed up the process of the Award organisers by producing separate AI-related contests.

Eldagsen subsequently declined the prize. “Thank you for selecting my image and making this a historic moment, as it is the first AI-generated image to win in a prestigious international photography competition,” he wrote. “How many of you knew or suspected that it was AI generated? Something about this feels wrong, doesn’t it? AI images and photography should not compete with one another in an award like this. They are different entities. AI is not photography. Therefore I will not accept the award.”

The photo of Edalgsen taking a photo of herself standing on stage at the ceremony was removed from the website and the competition as soon as the photos were published. Edalgsen actually went to London to attend the ceremony and even got up on stage to read a statement in person.

It is not certain if the organizers knew about Eldagsen’s work being AI-generated. In any case, instead of shrinking from the situation, the organizers should embrace it. AI-generated art has entered the culture in a huge way over the last year, with AI winning both photography and art competitions. Eldagsen’s work may generate a lot of discussion about how to handle it, since it encroaches into traditional media.

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