Shortly after the 2024 Color Photography Contest winners at the 1839 Awards were announced, we received a note from Miles Astray, the photographer who took home the Bronze and People's Vote Awards in our new AI category. 

Astray wrote to us to reveal that his image, "F L A M I N G O N E," was not AI but real. 

Our subsequent conversations were covered globally, reaching millions of viewers, and all of our participants benefited from this burst of interest in the community. 

Given this new world we're all entering, we wanted to take a moment to share our thoughts on the matter. 

First, we believe Miles' point is incredibly important and want to use our platform to help share the underlying idea behind his actions. In short, we agree with his gesture's message and believe it to be paramount. 

In our correspondence, Miles beautifully states, "...I wanted to show that Mother Nature and its human interpreters can still beat the machine and that creativity and emotion are more than just a string of digits."

As an artist, Miles's voice regarding this gesture will make a difference in the wider conversation we're all having. 

Since the 1839 Awards were designed to celebrate the art of photography above all else, the standalone AI category was intended to be a space for artists working in this new medium. For example, we didn't want folks who travel to the ends of the Earth to capture incredible animals or landscapes to compete with AI.

Miles knew his submission did not meet the requirements for the AI-generated image category. We understand that was the point, but we don’t want to prevent other artists from their shot at winning in the AI category. He graciously did not argue with the disqualification, and we've since been in communication about how to turn this gesture into a message of hope proving that photographers are a critical part of the image making process. 

In response, Miles writes: 

"When the people behind 1839 Awards notified me about my completely justified disqualification, that message took a backseat to the much more important words they led with, stressing that they appreciate my little stunt as a powerful message and an important, timely statement. “We hope this will bring awareness (and a message of hope) to many photographers worried about AI,” it read there, and I couldn’t have been more excited to learn that we are on the same page."

We hope this will bring awareness (and a message of hope) to other photographers worried about AI. 

If having the privilege of experiencing the imagery entered into our contests has taught us anything, we believe there is no shortage of creativity and novel imagery yet to be discovered.