About
The Process
The Prix Pictet sets out to find photographs that communicate important messages about global environmental issues under a broad theme. Entry to the Prix Pictet is by nomination. The nominators for the Prix Pictet are a group of leading experts in the visual arts, including directors and curators of major museums and galleries as well as journalists and critics. They lead the search for a series of images that have the power and artistic quality demanded by the Prix. Each nominator is invited to propose a maximum of five photographers.
Photographers not nominated, but wishing to submit their work for consideration, are invited to contact the Prix Pictet Secretariat via pictet@candlestar.co.uk. In such cases the Secretariat will confer with the Prix’s photography advisors prior to submitting the work to the full Jury for consideration.
Each nominated candidate is asked to provide a series of pictures coherently defined and focused on the theme of the award and limited to no more than ten images. All submissions are made online in a private artists’ zone on the Prix Pictet website. Once the submission process has been completed, the independent Prix Pictet Jury considers the work initially online and then at a judges conference. The Jury look for the photographs that they believe would have the greatest impact on public awareness of issues surrounding sustainability and the theme.
In the search for images, neither the subject matter nor the technique used to produce the image is tightly defined. The judges are looking for original contributions which, in their opinion, make best use of the resources of photography to communicate the issues concerning the topic for the year. No distinction is made between artistic merit and success in communicating the message. Where a distinction is made, a choice will be made between individual images and groups of telling images arranged as a series. Ultimately, artists submitting images grouped within a coherent series will be at an advantage. In shortlisting a limited number of photographers, inevitably some outstanding images will be excluded. To accompany each cycle of the award a book is published by teNeues. This publication offers a more wide-ranging insight into the work of the shortlisted photographers than is possible in the shortlisting process.
Although the judges look for photographic excellence, no preference is given to any particular kind of photographic material, technique or creative route, nor are any of these excluded from consideration. An artist using photographs, for example, is judged by precisely the same criteria as a photojournalist or a commercial photographer, or a professional in another field for whom photography may be no more than one of many tools.
Following the judges’ selection of the shortlist, the artists concerned are contacted by the Secretariat and invited to submit their work for the shortlist exhibition. At that point each artist is sent a full set of terms and conditions covering their engagement with the Prix Pictet. Each shortlisted artist will be able to apply for a production and travel grant of up to USD 4,000.
Aside from the overall Prix Pictet winner, one of the shortlisted photographers is invited to complete the Prix Pictet Commission. This is focussed on a country or region where Pictet & Cie are supporting a sustainability project related to the theme of the year’s award.
In arriving at their final decision on the award, the judges make no distinction between photographs of different genres, nor do they assume different potential types of audience for any class of photograph.
Following an assessment of the work in a gallery setting, the Jury select the winner of the Prix Pictet who will receive the prize of CHF 100,000. The name of the winning photographer will be announced at the opening ceremony of the exhibition of shortlisted artists, and at the same time one of the shortlisted photographers will be invited to complete the Commission.
For each cycle of the Prix Pictet, the shortlisted photographs tour globally.
