A German photographer, Boris Eldagsen, recently won first prize in the creative category at the world-renown Sony World Photography Awards 2023. However, he decided to decline the award after he revealed to the competition’s organizers that his winning image “The Electrician” was not a true photo, but created using artificial intelligence (AI).
Eldagsen’s 1940s-style black-and-white image show two women with hands adjusted on the dress of the one in the front. Upon closer inspection, there are signs that the image was generated by AI. This includes the shape of the woman’s pupil, the position of her fingers, and even how her dress blends into her arm.
Eldagsen told Insider that he created the image using a promptography process with DALL-E 2 back in September. He added that the photo competition should make separate categories for AI-generated art which is becoming increasingly realistic.
AI image-generation websites such as DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion have seen a boom in usage as of late, especially as it pertains to deepfake images. Eldagsen’s goal was to start a dialog on the current relationship between art and AI, pushing us to rethink the definition of photography and the use of AI within it.
The Electrician has since been removed from the Sony World Photography Awards and can no longer be seen in the physical exhibition in London. A spokesperson for the company behind the awards, CREO, told Insider that after receiving correspondence from Eldagsen and the warranties he provided, they felt that the entry met the criteria for the category. Nevertheless, it was taken down after Eldagsen declined the prize.
The Electrician is a part of a series by Eldagsen named “pseudomnesia”, a Latin term which translates to “fake memory”. The images are meant to be “fake memories of a past, that never existed, that no-one photographed” remarked Eldagsen on his website. He further said that photographic language has separated itself from the medium, and it is up for debate if AI generated images can be considered photography.
Eldagsen’s winning image stands as a reminder to people that AI technology has grown to such a level that it can be used to create art that is indistinguishable from the work of humans. With its rise in popularity, it may soon be time for a greater discussion on the merits of AI generated art.
