The World Press Photo contest, which rewards photojournalism and documentary photography, has changed its plans regarding artificial intelligence (AI). It had prohibited its use in all categories of the contest for 2024 (Individual, Stories and Long-Term Projects), but left a loophole limited to its application in the so-called Open Format. It is the one dedicated to innovative techniques and new narrative approaches, and artificially generated images and so-called generative fill were allowed as long as the lens-based photo was the center of the work. Now, however, the organization has decided to exclude “both generative fill and completely AI-generated images” here as well.
The change responds to what World Press Photo management considers “to be in line with our values of precision and reliability.” The Open Format will continue to support and encourage non-traditional modes of presentation and the combination of other media, including animation, videos or sounds. “The term artificial intelligence lends itself to debate because there are tools that are common to photography, such as contrasts, adjustments or colors. But the prohibition affects when a new image is created. This is what has now been excluded in all categories,” explains Andrew Davies, communications manager for the event. He adds that the resolution of not accepting something that looks like a photo, but is not, “generates a certain rejection by sectors of the photography industry.” As he explains, it is not a disagreement from the point of view of principles, “what happens is that they believe that more margin should be left in the Open Format.”
This category is a form of visual journalism that incorporates other techniques, and Davies indicates that “you can make videos, use images from a digital website, print a photo and make changes that do not fit in the others.” For World Press Photo, the important thing is that people who visit its traveling exhibition “know what they are seeing; let there be no doubt about the image presented,” concludes Davies. In 2023, visual storyteller Mohamed Mahdy (Alexandria, Egypt) won the Open Format with a project that mixed photos with writings, audio, maps and drawings to show the life of a fishing community threatened by pollution.
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