Photographer disqualified from AI image contest after winning with real photo

'Flamingone' - taken by photographer Miles Astray

A photographer whose shot of a headless flamingo won a competition for artificial intelligence generated images has been disqualified because the picture was genuine.

‌The striking image - called “Flamingone”- was entered by 38-year-old Miles Astray into the prestigious 1839 Awards, a competition which attracts entries from some of the world’s leading photographers.

‌Judges were impressed by the sight of a ball of pink feathers on top of two spindly legs.

‌The shot was so surreal that the judges - and the public - were convinced it could only have been created by using sophisticated AI-based photo editing software.

‌To Mr Astray’s surprise, it came third in the competition for AI-generated images and won the contest where the public was invited to vote.

Reality can be stranger than fiction

‌The picture was taken by Mr Astray in Aruba and, proving the adage that timing is everything in photography, he clicked the shutter at the precise moment the flamingo’s head was hidden while it was scratching its belly.

‌“I entered this actual photo into the AI category of 1839 Awards to prove that human-made content has not lost its relevance, that Mother Nature and her human interpreters can still beat the machine, and that creativity and emotion are more than just a string of digits,” Mr Astray said on his website.

‌Disenchanted by the growing use of AI to manipulate photos - which is now commonplace in picture-editing software - he decided to prove that reality can be stranger than fiction.

Flamingone, he added, was the perfect candidate. “It’s a surreal and almost unimaginable shot, and yet completely natural. It is the first real photo to win an AI award.”

‌There were, he admitted, ethical concerns. But he had no qualms about reversing the narrative.

‌“I was hoping that these industry professionals and also the audience would find that this jab at AI and its ethical implications outweighs the ethical implications of deceiving the viewer, which, of course, is ironic because that is what AI does.”

‌Lily Fierman, the director of Creative Resource Collective, which ran the contest said there were “no hard feelings” and that Mr Astray’s flamingo would be the starting point for a discussion on the use of AI.

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