Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014 - Who and why?

Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014

text by Grażyna Siedlecka

The four shortlisted artists for Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014 have been announced. This year's finalists are Alberto Garcia-Alix, Jochen Lempert, Lorna Simpson and Richard Mosse.

The Deutsche Börse photography prize is one of the most prestigious art awards in Europe, founded in 1996 by The Photographers' Gallery in London, supported and sponsored by Deutsche Börse Group since 2005. The list of previous winners includes such notable individuals as Paul Graham, Juergen Teller, John Stezaker, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin. The annual prize of £30,000 goes to an artist of any nationality, who has exhibited or published an outstanding body of work that has significantly contributed to photography in Europe (quoting the information provided by The Photographers’ Gallery).

Press Image l DBPP14 l Jochen Lempert, Untitled (girl in telephone booth), 1993-2011

The Deutsche Börse Photography prize 2014 jury includes Kate Bush, Jitka Hanzlova, Thomas Seelig, Anne-Marie Beckmann and Brett Rogers (the non-voting Chair). The winner will be announced on the 12th of May 2014 during a special ceremony at The Photographers' Gallery Before that happens, four nominated projects will be available for public viewing between 11 April and 11 June 2014 at The Photographers' Gallery.

The nominated works cover a diverse range of subjects and techniques, ranging from black and white self-portraits to experimental war documentary photos. The innovative thinking, groundbreaking ideas and broad-minded approaches is what makes these various pieces stand out.

RICHARD MOSSE

Richard Mosse (born in Kilkenny, 1980) is nominated for his exhibition “The Enclave”, which represented Ireland in the Venice Biennale 2013. This photographer has been getting more and more international attention since publishing his most recent work about the violent ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but what makes Mosse's photographs special? The photographer decided to use the virtually-obsolete Kodak Aerochrome film, which captures a spectrum of infrared light which is invisible to a human eye. This technology was developed by the U.S. military to be used for aerial surveillance. The project resulted in an eye-catching, psychedelic six-channel video installation and large format photographs, full of succulent reds and pinks, forcing a viewer to look at them again and again in attempt to understand what exactly is depicted in these beautiful pictures and the story behind them.

Richard Mosse, Safe From Harm, 2012 / Press Image / Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014

Mosse is perceived as one who breaks with the clichés of war journalism. In a truly sparkling tactic, he attempts to challenge the generic convention of classical photography and questions the sense of realism used to represent such a complex phenomena as war.