Prix Pictet
The Prix Pictet is an international award in photography. It was founded in 2008 by the Geneva-based Pictet Group with the mandate to use the power of photography to communicate messages about sustainability to a global audience. Its goal is to uncover photography of the highest order, applied to current social and environmental challenges. With the participation of over 4,700 photographers, the prize is judged by an independent jury and carries a prize of 100,000 Swiss francs.
Since 2008 the ten cycles of the Prix Pictet have been shown in more than 100 exhibitions across 25 countries with visitor numbers of over 550,000. The ten Prix Pictet winners are Benoit Aquin, Nadav Kander, Mitch Epstein, Luc Delahaye, Michael Schmidt, Valérie Belin, Richard Mosse, Joana Choumali, Sally Mann and Gauri Gill.
Process
Entry to the Prix Pictet is by nomination. As of November 2023, there were over 300 Prix Pictet nominators, a group of industry experts from around the world consisting of photographers, gallerists, agency heads, academics, authors, publishers, curators, photography foundations and others. Each nominated photographer is asked to submit a series of up to ten images, coherently defined and focused on the theme of the award.The Prix Pictet was first awarded in 2008 and operates on a cycle of about 18 months. Past themes have been Water, Earth, Growth, Power, Consumption, Disorder, Space, Hope, Fire and currently Human. From May 2014 the prize has been presented in partnership with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
The judges do not discriminate between photographs of different genres, or make assumptions about the types of audience for any class of photograph. Judging takes place in two stages - a conference to determine the shortlist, followed by a review of works by the shortlisted artists at an exhibition. Sir David King has been Chairman of the Prix Pictet jury since 2010.
The winner of the Prix Pictet receives a cash prize of CHF 100,000, announced at an opening ceremony of the exhibition of shortlisted artists.
Exhibition
An exhibition of the shortlisted portfolios for each cycle of the Prix Pictet tours the world, reaching over a dozen countries during the touring period. In this way the Prix Pictet presents the work of the shortlisted photographers, and the sustainability issues they highlight, to a wide international audience.A book to accompany each cycle of the award is also published, featuring work by each of the shortlisted artists along with images from the wider group of nominees. It also includes essays by established writers on the theme of the prize.