Founded in 2008 by the Pictet Group and Candlestar, the Prix Pictet has become the world’s leading award for photography and sustainability. The award aims to harness the power of photography – all genres of photography – to draw global attention to issues of sustainability, especially those concerning the environment. To date, there have been nine cycles of the Prix Pictet, each of which has highlighted a particular facet of sustainability. The nine themes are Water, Earth, Growth, Power, Consumption, Disorder, Space, Hope and Fire.
The Prix Pictet’s worldwide network of over 300 nominators have, over the course of the nine cycles, nominated 4,700 photographers for the award. Taken together the nominated works present a powerful testament to the fragile state of our planet. Each cycle’s shortlisted photographers participate in an international touring exhibition which since 2008 has been visited by over 550,000 people.
From each cycle’s shortlisted artists, the independent jury select a winner who has produced a series of work that is both artistically outstanding and presents a compelling narrative related to the theme of the award to receive the 100,000 Swiss Francs prize. The nine previous Prix Pictet laureates are Benoit Aquin, Nadav Kander, Mitch Epstein, Luc Delahaye, Michael Schmidt, Valérie Belin, Richard Mosse, Joana Choumali and Sally Mann.
For each cycle of the Prix Pictet, a book is published and distributed worldwide. Each book showcases the work of the shortlisted photographers as well as powerful images produced by a selection of the other nominated photographers.
Candlestar conceived the award in collaboration with the Pictet Group and continues to deliver the Prix Pictet touring exhibition and accompanying publication.
Image Credit: Prix Pictet
