AI-Generated Image Wins Sony Photography Award
The photographer opens up a welcome debate with Sony about the future of photography and AI but it falls on deaf ears.
Photographer Boris Eldagsen refused the winning prize of one of the most prestigious photography competitions in the world after revealing to Sony that it was AI-generated. Eldagsen never expected to win but instead wanted to open up a discussion about the future of photography.
Berlin-based artist Eldagsen entered the image The Electrician from a series called Pseudomnesia, meaning false memory. The image won in the creative open category of the prestigious Sony World Photography Awards. He described the image as:
“a haunting black-and-white portrait of two women from different generations, reminiscent of the visual language of 1940s family portraits.”
The Electrician was created using OpenAI’s DALL-E 2. Writing on his website, Eldagsen said, “Something about this doesn’t feel right, does it?” Perhaps this should have been a clue to the Sony judges who failed to spot the warped fingers and the haunting gaze from the two women in the black-and-white image from a bygone era.
In a statement on his Instagram, Eldagsen admitted that he had been a “cheeky monkey,” for…
