The shortlist for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2015 has been announced. This year’s selection showcases a diversity of photographic approaches, which include video and object/text based works and encompass social documentary, portraiture and contemporary art photography. The shortlisted artists include Nikolai Bakharev for his exhibition at the 55th Biennale of Art in Venice, Zanele Muholi for her publication Faces and Phases 2006 – 2014, Viviane Sassen for her exhibition Umbra at Nederlands Fotomuseum, and Mikhael Subotzky & Patrick Waterhouse for their publication Ponte City. For more information, visit the website below.

Website: The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2015

Press Release

Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2015 shortlist announced

3 December 2014

Deutsche Börse: The four artists shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2015 are Nikolai Bakharev, Zanele Muholi, Viviane Sassen and Mikhael Subotzky & Patrick Waterhouse. This year’s selection showcases a diversity of photographic approaches, which include video and object/text based works and encompass social documentary, portraiture and contemporary art photography.

Works by the shortlisted photographers will be exhibited at The Photographers’ Gallery from 17 April until 7 June 2015 and subsequently presented at the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst (Museum of Modern Art) in Frankfurt during the RAY 2015 Photo Festival (20 June – 20 September 2015). The winner will be announced at a special award ceremony held at The Photographers’ Gallery on 28 May 2015.

The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize is an annual prize established by The Photographers’ Gallery, London, in 1996 and awarded in partnership with Deutsche Börse Group since 2005. The annual award of £30,000 rewards a living photographer, of any nationality, for a specific body of work in an exhibition or publication format, which is felt to have significantly contributed to photography in Europe between 1 October 2013 and 30 September 2014.

The shortlisted artists were nominated for the following projects:

Nikolai Bakharev (b. 1946, Russia) for his exhibition at the 55th Biennale of Art in Venice (1 June – 24 November 2013).
Zanele Muholi (b. 1972, South Africa) for her publication Faces and Phases 2006 – 2014 (Steidl and the Walther Collection, 2014).
Viviane Sassen (b. 1972, Netherlands) for her exhibition Umbra at Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam (8 March – 1 June 2014).
Mikhael Subotzky (b. 1981, South Africa) and Patrick Waterhouse (b. 1981, UK) for their publication Ponte City (Steidl, 2014).

The members of the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2015 jury are: Chris Boot, Executive Director, Aperture Foundation; Rineke Dijkstra, Artist; Peter Gorschlüter, Deputy Director, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst and Anne Marie Beckmann, Curator, Art Collection Deutsche Börse.

Brett Rogers, Director of The Photographers’ Gallery, and non-voting Chair of the Jury said: “This year’s shortlist reflects a diversity of attitudes towards the medium underpinned by an exploration into new and unexpected modes of presentation incorporating video, text, object and wall-based photographic displays. The tension between public and private as a point of enquiry is reflected in the work of Nikolai Bakharev, whose images of Russian bathers on public beaches in the 80s and 90s expose the particular political hypocrisy around what constituted permitted imagery in the former USSR. Similarly in the work of Zanele Muholi, the personal and political become interwoven in her tender, unflinching portraits and testimonies of the South African LGBTI community. South Africa also features as a location and point of political departure in the work of Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse. Their collaborative publication presents a, ‘photo/graphic’ album of images and texts, ranging from the lyrical to the raw document, uncovering the history of a once elite, now abandoned high-rise apartment block in Johannesburg. And finally, Viviane Sassen’s sculptural, abstracted, sensual images continue to effect the blurring of genres, which characterize her work and position her as a leading force in contemporary art photography.”

Frank Klaas, Managing Director Global Public Affairs, Deutsche Börse said: “We are delighted to announce this year’s shortlist for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2015. The four artists showcase the broad artistic approaches, social documentary concerns and imaginative use of form and content that this prize celebrates. We are particularly pleased that the exhibition will be presented for the first time in Frankfurt’s MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst.”

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