Prix Pictet | SPACE

About

The most recent edition of the Prix Pictet – the global photography prize – was won by the Irish artist Richard Mosse. An exhibition of his winning work, and that of 11 other leading international artists has thrilled audiences on its extensive global tour and will open in Ireland at the Gallery of Photography on November 16 (runs until 20 January 2019, admission free).

The exhibition presents a unique opportunity to view artworks of outstanding quality that tackle burning global issues of our time.

Drawing on the theme of ‘Space’, the 12 shortlisted photographers explore subjects as far-reaching as marine pollution, migration, overpopulation and the planet’s great wilderness.

Work from ‘Heat Maps’, the winning series by Richard Mosse, is shown for the first time in Ireland. Mosse’s epic panoramas of refugee camps and staging sites in Europe are made using a military-grade thermographic camera designed to detect and identify humans from their body heat from as far away as fifty kilometers, day or night. The work is sinister and objectifying, while also being deeply empathetic and strangely intimate. It provokes powerful and complex responses in the viewer.

The Prix Pictet is an award of 100,000 Swiss Francs (approx €92,000) and is unique in its commitment to harnessing the power of photography to deepen our understanding of changes taking place on a global scale. Taken together the finalists’ works present a powerful testament to the fragile state of our planet.