Photo competition winner who used AI-generated image: ‘I want to open a discussion’ (Sony World Photography Awards)

EL PAÍS (lefty Euro hip rag) ^ | April 21 2023 | Elena G. Sevillano

[texas booster]

German artist Boris Eldagsen has sent shockwaves throughout the world of photography by entering the prestigious annual Sony World Photography Awards with an image that was not what it seemed. He submitted what the judges thought was an old-fashioned, sepia-toned, black-and-white photograph, of two women of different generations. The photo looked like it was taken in the early 20th century, and it won the creative category. ...

“My goal was to open a discussion, and I succeeded,” Eldagsen, a 52-year-old photographer from Berlin told EL PAÍS. Last fall, he considered testing the photo contests to see “if they had done their homework” and if they were aware that people could start submitting images generated using AI tools, he explains. The best way was to compete himself with one of his creations, entitled The Electrician, from the Pseudomnesia series. The term that means false memory, which might have given the judges a clue.

Eldagsen, a member of the German Academy of Photography, is satisfied with the result of his experiment. He believes there is an urgent need to address the fact that the realism of AI-generated images is such that it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate an original from an image created by algorithms. “It’s something we need to figure out as a community. AI is not photography and should not compete in the same category,” he says.

The dilemma Eldagsen wants to pose to his colleagues is whether it makes sense for the photography world to welcome AI-generated images under its umbrella or whether it would be wiser to exclude them. ... he says. “When I gave up the award everyone kind of froze. Like a rabbit looking at the fox, and the rabbit is the world of photography and the fox is AI-generators.”

[golux]

I still shoot at times with a Hasselblad and a pair of Leica R4s.

I shoot because the event is mine.

AI may be meaningful, or meaningless. It is of no concern to me.

The snows of yesteryear disappear, our memories fade in a century or ten centuries,

But while I breathe I have these prints before they melt or burn,

the moments were mine, the shots were mine, mechanically,

and they are mine until I am gone.

I am reminded of Rutger Hauer’s beautiful words at the end of Blade Runner.