Sophie Ristelhueber has been awarded the 2010 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize for her retrospective Sophie Ristelhueber at the Jeu de Paume, Paris. The £30,000 prize is awarded to a photographer of any nationality for their significant contribution to the medium of photography through either an exhibition or publication, in Europe, between 1 October 2008 and 30 September 2009. Sophie Ristelhueber was chosen by the Jury members, Oliva Maria Rubio (Director of Exhibitions, La Fàbrica, Spain); Gilane Tawadros (Chief Executive, Design and Artists Copyright Society, curator and writer, UK); James Welling (artist, USA); and Anne-Marie Beckmann (Curator, Art Collection Deutsche Börse, Germany). The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2010 is organised by The Photographers’ Gallery and is on show until 17 April 2010.

Website: The Photographers’ Gallery

The Photographers’ Gallery Press Release

Winner Announced for £30,000 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2010

Sophie Ristelhueber (b.1949, France) has been awarded the 2010 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. At a special ceremony on Wednesday 17 March 2010, the film director Terry Gilliam presented the £30,000 award. The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2010 is organised by The Photographers’ Gallery and is on show until 18 April 2010.

The Prize is awarded to a photographer of any nationality for their significant contribution to the medium of photography through either an exhibition or publication, in Europe, between 1 October 2008 and 30 September 2009. Sophie Ristelhueber won for her retrospective Sophie Ristelhueber at the Jeu de Paume, Paris (20 January – 22 March 2009).

For over 25 years, using photography and, more recently, moving image, Ristelhueber has investigated the impact of human conflict upon architecture and landscape in places such as Bosnia, France, Iraq, Lebanon and Kuwait. Often playing with an ambiguity of scale in her installations, Ristelhueber’s work confounds traditional photographic genres and unsentimentally draws attention to the scars and traces we leave behind, addressing the essence of our human existence.

Sophie Ristelhueber was chosen by the Jury members, Oliva Maria Rubio (Director of Exhibitions, La Fàbrica, Spain); Gilane Tawadros (Chief Executive, Design and Artists Copyright Society, curator and writer, UK); James Welling (artist, USA); and Anne-Marie Beckmann (Curator, Art Collection Deutsche Börse, Germany).

The other shortlisted artists for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2010, each awarded £3,000, are: Anna Fox (b.1961, UK), Zoe Leonard (b.1961, USA) and Donovan Wylie (b.1971, UK). The selection this year again highlights the diversity of contemporary photography, incorporating both conceptual practice as well as more traditional photographic approaches. For further information on each of the photographers’ work on display please visit the gallery website: www.photonet.org.uk. 

Brett Rogers, non-voting Chair of the Jury and Director of The Photographers’ Gallery said, on behalf of the jury: ‘Sophie Ristelhueber’s fragmented images explore the terrain of the real and imagined, addressing urgent issues of trauma, loss, memory and conflict.  Devoid of drama, her surgically precise images, radically installed, push the boundaries of the photographic medium.’

Alexandra Hachmeister, Head of Corporate Responsibility for Deutsche Börse, stated: ‘We congratulate Sophie Ristelhueber on being awarded the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2010. We are delighted to be Prize Sponsor of this prestigious award for the sixth time. Thanks to all those who have contributed - the Gallery staff, the Academy, the jury and above all the artists - the Prize has become one of the most important contemporary photography awards worldwide. We would thus also like to thank them all for their engagement.’

The Gallery has collaborated with Deutsche Börse Group as sponsors of the Photography Prize since 2005 and is delighted to have built such a successful partnership. Deutsche Börse Group is one of the world largest exchange organisations and a major sponsor of photographic art. Further information on Deutsche Börse Group and its photography collection can be found at www.deutsche-boerse.com/art. The exhibition will tour to Frankfurter Kunstverein, Germany (13 May – 25 July 2010).

Photo: Sophie Ristelhueber

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