Boris Eldagsen has just recently won first prize at the World Photography Organization’s 2023 Sony World Photography Awards in the Creative category but has declined to accept the award due to the fact that he used AI images.
As reported by PetaPixel, the Berlin based photographer and “photomedia artist” submitted an image called “THE ELECTRICIAN” that is part of Eldagsen’s series “PSEUDOMNESIA: Fake Memories“.
Upon hearing the news, Eldagsen took to his blog to report that in fact his submission was generated by AI and that he doesn’t consider it to be “photography” but simply an image and would be turning down the award.
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. — Boris Eldagsen
What were the judges thinking? Are they drunk the night before? Or they have poor intelligence in technology? I noticed! it does indeed not feel right. The third hand down right is spooky, lacking details and not even feminine.