Pictet Group and Paris Photo bring photography and sustainability into crisp focus

Photography has long occupied a unique position between art and witness, documenting the world while shaping how we understand it. In November 2026, that relationship will take on renewed significance as Pictet Group becomes official partner of Paris Photo, and will bring Prix Pictet to the fair with a dedicated exhibition at the Grand Palais for the first time.

The partnership marks a natural synergy between two organisations with longstanding commitments to photography. Since its founding in 1997, Paris Photo has become the international meeting point for the medium, bringing together leading galleries, publishers, artists and collectors from around the world. Prix Pictet, established by Pictet Group in 2008, has spent almost two decades championing photography that engages with sustainability, recognising artists whose work explores the environmental and societal challenges shaping contemporary life.

Occupying a prominent position on the Promenoir within the Grand Palais' soaring Nef (nave), the inaugural Prix Pictet presentation will offer visitors an opportunity to revisit some of the award's most celebrated works. Rather than a historical step-by-step, the exhibition will present a carefully curated dialogue between past laureates, demonstrating the breadth of artistic approaches that photography can bring to questions of climate, consumption, landscape and human resilience.

Together, the selected works will reveal photography's capacity to communicate what data alone cannot. Monumental landscapes, intimate portraits and documentary observations trace the consequences of ecological disruption, industrialisation and changing relationships between people and place. While created across different moments and geographies, the images remain strikingly relevant, reflecting concerns that have only become more urgent since the prize was established.

The exhibition will also highlight the remarkable diversity of artists recognised by Prix Pictet over its 11 completed cycles. Previous laureates include Nadav Kander, whose celebrated series Yangtze – The Long River examined China's rapid transformation; Richard Mosse, known for his immersive explorations of migration and conflict; Sally Mann's deeply evocative studies of landscape and memory; and Alfredo Jaar, the most recent laureate, whose multidisciplinary practice interrogates the politics and ethics of representation.

This emphasis on photography as both artistic expression and cultural commentary sits comfortably within the wider ambitions of Paris Photo. Now approaching its 30th edition, the fair continues to present historical masters alongside contemporary practitioners and emerging voices, reflecting the medium's constant evolution while encouraging conversations across generations, disciplines and geographies.

For Pictet Group, the partnership extends a commitment that reaches beyond collecting or sponsorship. Sustainability has informed the firm's identity for decades, and Prix Pictet was conceived from the belief that photography possesses a unique ability to change how audiences engage with the environmental challenges facing the planet. Through each edition, photographers are invited to respond to a new sustainability theme, creating bodies of work that encourage reflection as much as aesthetic appreciation.

That ambition has resonated well beyond the award itself. Since 2008, more than 5,600 photographers have been nominated for Prix Pictet, while touring exhibitions have travelled internationally, introducing over 1.5 million visitors to photography that addresses some of the defining issues of our age. The presentation at Paris Photo 2026 represents the next chapter in that journey, bringing these works into one of photography's most influential annual gatherings.

Set against the architectural grandeur of the restored Grand Palais, the Prix Pictet exhibition will offer visitors a moment of reflection amid the energy of the fair. Together, Paris Photo and Pictet Group demonstrate how photography continues to operate not only as an artistic medium, but as a powerful lens through which to consider the world we inhabit and the future we collectively shape.

Visit Paris Photo 2026 from 12-15 November 2026 at the Grand Palais