At the recent 1839 Photography Awards, Flamingo Miles Astray’s (2024) won multiple awards in the AI-generated art category. It took first place in the People’s Vote Award in the AI category and third place in the AI-generated art category. There was just one problem: the photo was real, leading organizers to disqualify the photo from the competition.
Astray submitted this real-life photo of a pink flamingo with its head wrapped around itself against a white background to the competition to demonstrate that human creativity remains relevant amid the rise of AI art.
“The twist is this: the photo is as real as a bird scratching its belly,” Astley wrote on his website. His aim is to prove that “man-made content has not lost its meaning, that nature and human interpreters can still outperform machines, and that creativity and emotion are more than just numbers.”
The jury award was given by New York TimesChristie’s, Phaidon and other major art institutions. After the jury rescinded the prize, the organization removed the photo from its website.
On the other hand, AI images have also won awards for real photography. For example, Boris Eldagsen won the World Photography Organization’s Sony World Photography Award for an AI-generated image. However, the artist rejected the award, insisting that AI and real photography should be judged separately.
