Hasselblad unveiled the 70 finalists of Hasselblad Masters 2026 , the company’s first Masters competition since 2023 . It didn’t take long for controversy to emerge, including allegations that a finalist used generative AI to create one of their images.

Immediate Backlash

A post on Reddit r/photography concerning the allegations has garnered over 600 upvotes and more than 160 comments at the time of writing.

The specific photo in question was not among the images Hasselblad included in its 10-image grids celebrating all 70 finalists across seven categories. However, the image was featured in a YouTube Short shared by Hasselblad, and it is one of the images shown in the public voting process . The “photo” is in the Street category.…