The Prix Pictet's next photography prize will explore the jungle
The internationally renowned photography award has unveiled 'Jungle' as the theme for its twelfth cycle, inviting photographers to respond to one of the planet's most vital ecosystems
Widely acknowledged as the most-respected photography prize out there, the Prix Pictet has focused on photography’s ability to incite conversations around sustainability since its inception in 2008.
Every other year, the prize announces a new theme, revealed at Les Rencontres d'Arles, which engages with these social and environmental considerations, triggering a cycle which ends with the winning work undertaking a global tour. Themes typically centre around one word – previous iterations have included Fire, Storm and Disorder – and now director of the Prix Pictet Michael Benson has revealed that the theme will be Jungle.
‘The world’s jungles are the great green lungs of the planet,’ says Benson. ‘These huge carbon sinks play a crucial role in regulating and helping to stabilise the planet’s climate. Yet across the globe jungles are in crisis, forests are threatened by deforestation, fires, and degradation; surface water has been lost and rivers are increasingly disconnected and polluted. The implications of any loss or degradation of these densely interconnected ecosystems extend well beyond changes in land use.’
The jury – led by chair Dutch-born British businessman Sir Tim Smit – will review portfolios of work from all around the world which respond to the theme, before deciding on a shortlist of twelve photographers, set to be announced next summer. Elsewhere, Prix Pictet will also host an exhibition at Paris Photo, to mark the Pictet Group’s new role as the official partner.
It is a collaborative relationship which speaks to this year’s theme, exploring the links between humanity and society. ‘Nothing in a jungle exists alone,’ Benson adds. ‘They are complex interconnected systems that we only vaguely understand. The jungle is a place of mystery and secrets. It is a place of legendary lost cities and civilisations of economic adventures and many broken dreams. In this way, the jungle mirrors contemporary human environments more than we might expect. Cities, digital networks and social ecosystems have their own undergrowth: layers of complexity that obscure as much as they reveal.’
