He Was Jailed As a result of an Algorithm Misidentified His Face. Now His Photograph Hangs within the Smithsonian.

The National Portrait Gallery is Jared Soares’s favourite museum. It’s just some Metro stops away from the photographer’s residence in Northeast DC, and he says he’s visited dozens of occasions to admire the works from his favourite artists. But Soares’s subsequent go to will probably be completely different.

The second flooring of the gallery now options Soares’s award-winning {photograph}, Misidentified by Artificial Intelligence: Alonzo and Carronne (2023). After last week’s announcement that he received the second prize within the 2025 Outwin Boochever portrait competitors, Soares says the accomplishment nonetheless hasn’t absolutely sunk in. “I feel all the joy and elation will show up a couple weeks from now.” When he sees the work within the museum, Soares says, “I’ll probably ugly cry.”

The portrait depicts Alonzo Sawyer, a Maryland resident who was falsely accused of against the law and arrested after being misidentified by facial recognition software program. He stated it’s a warning to the hazards of surveillance, whereas additionally a nod to like and intimacy of relationships.

“It’s an image about tenderness,” he stated. “but also the danger of AI, facial technology, and algorithms. I hope people will start to consider that we need more oversight and thoughtful decision making with this technology.”

The {photograph} was initially a fee for a 2023 New Yorker story about Sawyer, who was misidentified by a Maryland Transit Administration algorithm whereas authorities looked for the assailant of an area bus driver. The algorithm created a composite that resembled Sawyer’s face, making the Maryland resident—who was in a distinct county on the time of the assault—a main particular person of curiosity. When he went to visitors court docket for an unrelated minor infraction a couple of days later, US Marshals slammed him towards a wall. He was jailed for 9 days with out bail. That 12 months, a study showed that facial recognition know-how can’t constantly inform Black individuals aside.

Soares centered the portrait on Sawyer’s face and the palms of his spouse, Caronne, which cradle it. “When I first got the assignment,” he says, “my first thought was ‘how can I show the uniqueness of Alonzo’s face, and how can I put it in a way that it confronts the reader?’”  He stated he wished to make individuals cease, and skim the story. “You can’t look away. You’re confronted by Alonzo’s face, and hopefully it suggests what he went through.”

Soares shared his private connection as a Black man provides layers to the photograph. “It’s my worst nightmare,” Soares stated. “It’s probably every person of color’s nightmare.” Soares invited Sawyer and his household to the general public opening final weekend. “It was incredible to see them smiling again, and able to enjoy this together,” he stated.

All three prize winners—Antonio Cruz, Kameron Neal, and Soares—hosted an artist discuss on the museum final weekend and did a Q&A about their respective items within the “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today,” exhibition. The curators “did an incredible job being able to connect three works,” he says.

If you propose to go to, preserve an eye fixed out for Soares; he intends to be a frequent customer on the exhibition: “I want to savor it.”