Sustainability Through the Photographer’s Lens

The winner of the Prix Pictet £50,000 prize is announced.

By: EricW | Nov 3, 2008 |  1

Categories: Environment, Arts & Artists, Artevist

Yesterday in Paris, Canadian photographer Benoit Aquin was named the winner of the Prix Pictet 2008, taking home the grand prize of CHF 100,000 (£50,000) for his Dustbowl Series of photographs, chronicling desertification in China. This is an excerpt from their Press Release:

The award was presented at the Palais de Tokyo and attended by the majority of the shortlisted artists and distinguished guests from the worlds of art, business and sustainability.

Making the formal presentation, Kofi Annan Nobel Laureate and Former Secretary General of the United Nations, said: “It is my hope that the Prix Pictet, the world’s first prize dedicated to photography and sustainability, will help to deepen understanding of the changes taking place in our world and raise public awareness about the urgency of taking preventative action. Each artist has addressed the environmental and social challenges we face in their own personal way. The result is a series of powerful images which seeks to confront us with the scale of the threat we face and to inspire governments, businesses, - and all of us as individuals - to step up to the challenge and support change for a sustainable world.”

Benoit Aquin was chosen by an international panel of independent judges, chaired by Francis Hodgson (head of the photographs department at Sotheby’s, London) who said: “The jury were impressed by the overall standard in this the Prix Pictet’s first year. The photographers have made it a really tight competition. In the end we are pleased to acknowledge the quite excellent series that Benoit Aquin has made on desertification in China, which in the opinion of the jury just tipped a group of other excellent candidates. We are proud to have set a standard to which future Prix Pictet nominees can aspire and we are delighted to compliment Benoit Aquin on a quite splendid achievement.”

It’s well worth a visit to the Prix Pictet website to see all of the shortlisted artists as there is quite a variety of theme and technique. Here’s another one of my favourites by Carl De Keyser from Belgium, titled “Moments Before the Flood”.

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Good site, and interesting contest, even I don’t really agree with all the choices, but always so subjective.

By: MigMM
posted: November 20, 2008 at 04:20 PM