The headless flamingo photo looked like something only artificial intelligence could come up with: A nearly perfectly round pink owl perched on two toothpick-like legs, it had the whimsical feel, odd balance, and missing body parts that characterize AI-generated images.
In fact, the photo is so shocking, both in its absurd yet lifelike nature, that it won an award in the AI ​​category of the 1839 Awards color photography competition last week. But the title, “FLAMINGONE,” wasn't dreamed up from a text prompt entered into an image-generating tool. Rather, the photo shows a hyper-realistic flamingo (not decapitated at all) that photographer Miles Astley captured on a beach in Aruba two years ago.
Astley's work had won both third place in its category and the People's Choice Award, but was disqualified after the photographer revealed the truth. But Astley told The Washington Post that “FLAMINGONE” still accomplished its mission: to send a poignant message to a world plagued by ever-evolving, powerful technology and the resulting deluge of fake images.
“My goal was to show that nature is really amazing and creative, and I don't think any machine can beat it,” Astley told The Washington Post. “But on the other hand, AI imagery is becoming so advanced that it's indistinguishable from real photographs. So where does that leave us? What are the implications and pitfalls? I think that's a really important discussion we need to have now.”
When it comes to AI-generated photos, a lot of attention has been focused on the bizarre results: the Pope in a Balenciaga-esque down jacket, Elon Musk with a melted face sunburned on Mars, a flood of people with too many teeth or fingers. But the technology has also enabled the proliferation of deepfakes: images that can be used for more nefarious purposes, such as overturning elections or spreading disinformation. In the creative world, it has sparked debates about job security and fair pay. As a result, there have been calls around the world to regulate the technology.
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Astley believes: “Technology itself is not inherently good or bad. It's how you apply it that matters, right? So I think we need to get ahead of that now, or it's going to be very hard to catch up.”
That's one of the reasons Astray decided to try his hand at tricks, inspired by similar stunts in recent years. But in other cases, AI-generated images have won photography awards. “So I approached the problem from a different side.”
For about two years, the globetrotting 38-year-old photographer had been thinking about taking a “surreal photo of an already surreal-looking bird” on a pristine beach off the coast of Aruba. On that sunny day, Astley wanted to avoid the crowds, so he took the first boat out at about 5am to a small island known for its colonies of flamingos. When he got there, he spotted the bright pink birds going about their “morning routine,” cleaning their feathers. The “very lucky shot” captured the flamingo in the middle of scratching its belly.
For the past few years, he'd thought the odd-looking bird would be the perfect vehicle for an anti-AI protest movement, but “there weren't many competitions in this category.” Late last year, his chance came when Creative Resources Collective approached him to enter their 1839 Awards color photography competition, which is judged by industry experts including the Centre Pompidou, The New York Times, and Getty Images.
“I felt bad for deceiving them,” Astley said, adding that when she received an email from Creative Resources Collective informing her of her win, she revealed that the image had not been AI-generated, “and it went without saying that it was the right decision to disqualify me to ensure fairness with the other entrants in the category who had submitted real AI images.”
In a statement to The Washington Post, Creative Resources Collective director Lily Fierman said the organization appreciated “the powerful message Miles conveyed in his submission,” but disqualified Astley's work because it did not meet the category's requirements.
Regarding the contest's first-ever separate AI category, Fierman said: “It was meant to be a platform for artists working in this new medium. We didn't want an AI to compete with, say, people who travel to the ends of the Earth to photograph amazing animals and landscapes.”
Still, she added, “I hope this will raise awareness (and send a message of hope) to other photographers who are concerned about AI.” Now, Fierman added, Creative Resources Collective is working with Astley to publish a blog post on the subject. “As an artist, his voice will help change this conversation,” she said.
Astley, whose work focuses on “perceiving the world as it is”, said he did not expect such a positive response, nor the hundreds of “funny, thoughtful and heartfelt comments” he received on social media.
“These are all human qualities that an AI can't replicate or relate to,” he said. “And that's beautiful and it's part of the message that I wanted to get across initially. And it's all of these things that really combine to make a message.”
