The Prix Pictet is the world’s leading prize for photography and sustainability. It was launched in 2008 by the Pictet Group with the aim of using the power of photography to sensitise people to pressing global sustainability issues. Each of the ten cycles to date has been dedicated to a specific aspect of sustainability. The Prix Pictet Human exhibition will be on display at the Pinakothek der Moderne from 6 November to 24 November 2024.
Image above: Yael Martínez, Abuelo Estrella, 2021 © Courtesy the artist and Magnum Photos, and Patricia Conde Galería, Mexico City.
The Prix Pictet Human exhibition showcases the work of twelve outstanding photographers who have been shortlisted for the tenth cycle of the Prix Pictet. In their works, they impressively emphasise the many facets of the human theme and deal in a unique way with our interpersonal connections and the broad spectrum of our interactions with the world. The shortlisted portfolios cover a range of photographic styles including documentary, portraiture, landscape, light and process studies and explore diverse themes such as the plight of indigenous peoples, local and global conflict, childhood, economic decay, the traces of human settlement and industrial development, gang crime, borderlands and migration. The exhibited works question our role as ‘stewards’ of our planet and shed light on key issues of global sustainability, which are at the centre of the prize that was established 15 years ago.
At the award ceremony at the Victoria & Albert Museum (the first stop on the international tour) in September 2023, Indian photographer Gauri Gill was named the winner of the Prix Pictet Human, which is endowed with 100,000 Swiss francs. An independent jury selected Gauri Gill as the winner from the twelve shortlisted candidates. Gauri Gill’s work is an expression of her belief in working with and through the community through ‘active listening’. For more than two decades, Gauri Gill has worked intensively with marginalised groups living in the desert of western Rajasthan in northern India. In the last ten years, her focus has been on indigenous artists in Maharashtra.
At the end of the exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Colombian photographer Federico Ríos Escobar was named the winner of the Prix Pictet People’s Choice Award. This public prize, worth 10,000 Swiss francs, was awarded for the first time this year. In his moving images, Ríos Escobar shows the harrowing reality of South American children whose parents risk the dangerous crossing of the Darién Gap, an almost impenetrable jungle area between Colombia and Panama. With the newly created People’s Choice Award, exhibition visitors will be able to vote for their favourite among the finalists in order to stimulate further debate on the central theme of the award.
The photographers nominated for the shortlist are:
Hoda Afshar, Iran
Gera Artemova, Ukraine
Ragnar Axelsson, Iceland
Alessandro Cinque, Italy / Peru
Siân Davey, United Kingdom
Gauri Gill, India
Michał Łuczak, Poland
Yael Martínez, Mexico
Richard Renaldi, USA
Federico Ríos Escobar, Colombia
Vanessa Winship, United Kingdom / Bulgaria
Vasantha Yogananthan, France
2022 © Courtesy the artist
For more than 40 years, Ragnar Axelsson has been following the dramatic changes in the lives of indigenous peoples, in the landscapes and environments on the edge of the habitable world. In his works, Alessandro Cinque expresses his concerns about the life and disappearance of the homeland of the indigenous peoples of the Andes. Gauri Gill has spent more than two decades photographically capturing the joy, pain and tenderness of people trying to make a living in the remote Indian desert region of Rajasthan. Federico Ríos Escobar offers insights into the lives of South American children whose parents set out to cross the dangerous jungle region on the border between Colombia and Panama, also known as the Darién Gap. Michał Łuczak documents the indelible traces left behind by the once flourishing mining industry in Upper Silesia, Poland. Gera Artemova’s visual diary begins with the Russian attack on her hometown of Kiev, Ukraine, on 24 February 2022, while Vasantha Yogananthan’s works reflect the dreams and despair of the generation that witnessed Hurricane Katrina as a child in New Orleans, USA. Vanessa Winship creates sensitive portraits of schoolgirls from the Turkish border region. The islands of Hormuz, Qeshm and Hengam with their unique and pristine landscapes form the centrepiece of Hoda Afshar’s work. The perforated photographs by Yael Martínez were created in response to the disappearance of family members who were victims of violence – everyday events in the Mexican state of Guerrero. Richard Renaldi and Siân Davey both use the garden in their works as a place of hope and new beginnings, a place that serves as a metaphor for the human heart and a possible source of harmony.
The independent jury for the Prix Pictet Human was made up of the following members:
Sir David King, FRS (Chairman)
Founder and Chairman, Climate Crisis Advisory Group
Philippe Bertherat
President, MAMCO (Musée d’art moderne et contemporain), Geneva
Funmi Iyanda
Creative Director, OYA Media, Lagos and London
Jan Dalley
Arts Editor, Financial Times
Duncan Forbes
Director of Photography, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Jeff Rosenheim
Joyce Frank Menschel Curator of Photography, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Sally Mann
Winner of the Prix Pictet Fire, 2021
An illustrated book has been published by Hatje Cantz to accompany the exhibition, which presents a selection of works by other photographers nominated for the Prix Pictet alongside the works of the shortlisted candidates. The illustrated book contains essays by historian David Christian and writer Meehan Crist as well as an interview with photographer Sebastião Salgado, the grand master of humanist photography, conducted by Michael Benson, director of the Prix Pictet.
Curated by Prix Pictet. Franziska Kunze, Head of the Photography and Time-based Media Collection, Bavarian State Painting Collections, is responsible for the organisational implementation at the Pinakothek der Moderne.
WHEN?
Exhibition dates: Wednesday, 6 November – Sunday, 24 November 2024
Opening hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday – Sunday, 10am – 6pm, Thursday, 10am – 8pm
WHERE?
Pinakothek der Moderne
Ground floor (Temporary 2)
Barer Straße 40
80333 Munich
