Prix Pictet Fire Exhibition: Sustainability in Photos
November 23, 2022/
Featuring the impact of fire on our environment is the theme of the ninth cycle of the Prix Pictet, which aims to harness the power of photography to draw global attention to issues of sustainability, especially those concerning the environment.
In Prix Pictet Fire’s exhibition, immerse yourself in the perspective captured by 13 photographers from Austria, Belgium, Benin, Cambodia, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, Switzerland, and USA who have been shortlisted for this year’s prize.
What to expect at Prix Pictet Fire
The bodies of work shortlisted for Prix Pictet Fire draw their inspiration from both major global events and personal experiences, spanning documentary, portraiture, landscape, collage and studies of light and process.
Stephen Barber, Chair of the Prix Pictet, said of the theme, fire, “It is the fourth element. Fire destroys and it renews. Fire means survival, renewal, and prosperity. Yet our abuse of this most capricious of elements is the source of most of our environmental woes. Building upon our successful exhibitions in Shanghai and Beijing in 2021, we are delighted to be able to present the outstanding work of some of the world’s greatest photographers to audiences in Singapore. We hope that this impactful collection of work will move and bring inspiration to everyone who visits.”
Winning exhibit
Sally Mann, Blackwater, 2008-2012 (Source: Prix Pictet)
American photographer Sally Mann’s series Blackwater (2008-2012) explores the devastating wildfires that enveloped the Great Dismal Swamp in southeastern Virginia, where the first slave ships docked in America. Mann said, “The fires in the Great Dismal Swamp seemed to epitomize the great fire of racial strife in America – the Civil War, emancipation, the Civil Rights Movement, in which my family was involved, the racial unrest of the late 1960s and most recently the summer of 2020. Something about the deeply flawed American character seems to embrace the apocalyptic as solution.”
Shortlisted photographers and their works
Rinko Kawauchi, who photographed firework displays throughout Japan every summer from 1997-2001
Mak Remissa, whose series Left 3 Days recalls deeply personal memories during the Khmer Rouge occupation of Phnom Penh
David Uzochukwu, whose portraiture series In The Wake is set within an unknown landscape on fire
Daisuke Yokota, whose series Matter / Burn Out explores the act of reconstructing meaning and value through the act of burning his own masterpiece Matter after its exhibition in China, documenting the process in 4,000 photographs whereby the data was processed, manipulated and revived to form a brand new work
The Prix Pictet is accompanied by a full-colour book published by teNeues, covering in detail the work of the shortlisted photographers, together with selected images from the wider group of nominees, and essays on the theme of the prize by leading thinkers and writers.
See the Prix Pictet Fire exhibit in person
Prix Pictet Fire will be open to visitors with free admission at The Gallery, Singapore Arts School (SOTA), 1 Zubir Said Drive, Leval 2, Singapore 227968, on 8 – 20 January 2023, from 12pm to 8pm.
About Prix Pictet
Prix Pictet was founded by the Pictet Group in 2008. Today the award is recognised as the world’s leading prize for photography. On an approximately 18-month cycle, each theme aims to provoke discussion and debate on issues of sustainability. The prize of 100,000 Swiss francs is awarded for a body of work that addresses most powerfully the theme of the award.
The eight past themes of the Prix Pictet are Water, Earth, Growth, Power, Consumption, Disorder, Space, and Hope. The eight previous Prix Pictet laureates are Benoit Aquin (Water), Nadav Kander (Earth), Mitch Epstein (Growth), Luc Delahaye (Power), Michael Schmidt(Consumption), Valérie Belin (Disorder), Richard Mosse (Space), and Joana Choumali (Hope).
The shortlisted works of each cycle have been shown in exhibitions in many major cities around the world, including the Gallery of Photography, Dublin; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Musée de l’Elysées, Lausanne; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki; and LUMA Westbau, Zurich among others, drawing visitor numbers of over 550,000.
