RIVALS: Boris Eldagsen and Miles Astray’s AI vs. photography showdown that started at THE GRAIN

Two photo pranksters unite for gallery show

Miles Astray and Boris Eldagsen at RIVALS - Photography vs. Promptography

One of the first meetings between Boris Eldagsen and Miles Astray happened on THE GRAIN Podcast, where I brought them together for a conversation that I knew would ignite a vital debate.

I framed them as rivals—one a master of AI-generated imagery, the other a photographer whose work had been mistaken for AI.

Both were pranksters in their own right, artists who had deliberately staged stunts with their images to challenge the art world. Now, that playful rivalry has become something more: RIVALS–Photography vs. Promptography, a groundbreaking exhibition in Berlin’s European Month of Photography.

At the heart of the show are their viral works—Eldagsen’s The Electrician, the AI-generated image that won and later declined the 2023 Sony World Photography Award, and Astray’s F L A M I N G O N E, a real photograph that won distinctions in an AI category at the 1839 Awards. Side by side, these images expose the tension at the core of contemporary visual culture:

When AI and photography become indistinguishable, what separates the two? And does it even matter?

Curated by Eldagsen in collaboration with Photo Edition Berlin and Guelman und Unbekannt gallery, RIVALS forces the art world to face questions it has largely avoided:

What can AI do that photography can’t? And what can photography still capture that AI never will?

The exhibition brings together 18 photographers and 18 AI artists, each pushing their mediums to the limit. Among them, Sabine von Bassewitz uses AI to visualize the experience of multiple sclerosis in ways traditional photography never could. Another artist lets the sun physically burn images onto film, emphasizing photography’s direct relationship with light and time.

The exhibition is split into two worlds. One half is dedicated to truth-seeking photographic genres like documentary and reportage. The other showcases AI-generated works—surreal, conceptual, and freed from the laws of physics. The two disciplines collide in the middle, where The Electrician and F L A M I N G O N E hang side by side, marking the blurred border between photography and promptography.

RIVALS is Eldagsen’s attempt to fill that gap:

I believe that photo festivals and institutions have a responsibility to clarify the relationship between photography and AI art, yet curators aren’t fulfilling that task.

Astray, for his part, welcomes the diversity of perspectives:

Art is what you see in it, and there’s a lot to see here.

They may be rivals, but together, they’re shaping the future of visual art— a momentum that started here, at THE GRAIN. Listen to the podcast episode here