ArtLab is moving away from its usual programming focused on the interface between art, science and technology to host Hope. This photo exhibition presents the work of the 12 finalists of the 2019 Prix Pictet award, selected from over 600 nominees. The images reveal moments of triumph in the face of adversity, and the product of efforts made to preserve the environment. Together, they demonstrate how optimism can encourage change.
Gideon Mendel, Original Image: Rally welcoming SWAPO leader Sam Nujoma on the day that he returned to Namibia after thirty years’ exile. September 1989. Scanned and reframed after accidental water and mould damage in 2016. 2016. From the Series: Damage: A Testament of Faded Memory, 2016
© Gideon Mendel, Prix Pictet
Alexia Webster, Charle Kahalalo who escaped violent attacks in his village in Masisi and has been in living for a year in Bulengo IDP Camp in Goma, DR Congo, stands for his portrait, 2014. From the series Street Studios, 2011 – 18 © Alexia Webster, Prix Pictet
Awoiska Van der Molen, #384-16, 2013. From the Series: Im schwarzen Himmelsrund, 2009 – 18 © Awoiska Van der Molen, Prix Pictet
Ivor Prickett, Civilians who had remained in west Mosul during the battle to retake the city, lined up for an aid distribution in the Mamun neighbourhood. Iraq, March 2017. From the series: End of the Caliphate, 2016 – 2018
© Ivor Prickett, The New York Times
Janelle Lynch, For You, 2017. From the series: Another Way of Looking at Love, 2015-2018
© Janelle Lynch, Prix Pictet
Joana Choumali, Untitled, 2019. From the series: Ça va aller, 2016-19
© Joana Choumali, Prix Pictet
Lucas Foglia, Kate in an EEG Study of Cognition in the Wild, Utah
2015. From the series: Human Nature, 2006 – 2019
© Lucas Foglia, Prix Pictet
Margaret Courtney-Clarke, Life is Them. Emsi Tjambiru and Beverly Tjivinde dance on the road near their craft stall to flag down tourist busses, 2017. From the series: Cry Sadness into the Coming Rain, 2014 – 2018
© Margaret Courtney-Clarke, Prix Pictet
Ross McDonnell, Limbs No. 1, 2012. From the series: Limbs, 2012
© Ross McDonnell, Prix Pictet
Shahidul Alam, Fatema shows off her new dress. She wants to become a model, 2014. From the series: Still She Smiles, 2014
© Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World
Robin Rhode, Principle of Hope (Selected still 2), 2017. From the series: Principle of Hope, 2017
© Robin Rhode, Prix Pictet
Rena Effendi, The whole Borca family, from Breb village, puts finishing touches on one of the 40 haystacks it makes each summer in Maramures, Romania, 2012. From the series: Transylvania: Built on Grass, 2012
© Rena Effendi, Prix Pictet
In a ceremony at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Ivorian photographer Joana Choumali was presented with the eighth Prix Pictet for her series Ça va aller (It will be ok) on this edition’s theme of Hope. Her winning series presents photographs taken three weeks after the terrorist attacks in Grand Bassam on Sunday March 13th, 2016.
Choumali said "This work is a way to address the way Ivorian people deal with trauma and mental health. Each stitch was a way to recover, to lay down the emotions, the loneliness, and mixed feelings I felt. Adding embroidery on these street photographs was an act of channelling hope and resilience."
Perhaps in our ability to carry on in adversity lies hope for us all. Hope that, despite the catastrophic damage that we have visited upon the natural world and upon the lives of our most vulnerable citizens, it is not too late to reverse the damage that we have done.
Kofi Annan (1938-2018), Hon. President, Prix Pictet, 2017
The Prix Pictet
Prior to its exhibit in Lausanne, the Hope exhibition was inaugurated at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and was exhibited in Tokyo, Zurich and Moscow. Hope will soon continue its tour by way of New York. The Prix Pictet is an international photography award dedicated to sustainable development. It aims to harness the power of photography to draw global attention to the environmental and social issues facing humanity today. The Prix Pictet has attracted more than 4,200 competitors to date. It has been the subject of more than 90 exhibitions in 40 cities around the world and attracted nearly 650,000 visitors. More information on the official website of the Prix Pictet.
Views of the exhibition
© Sabine Senn for Pictet Group