Prix Pictet 2009 – Earth

Nadav Kander Bathers, Yibin, Sichuan Yangtze, The Long River Series

“Together, these photographs from the artists shortlisted for Pictet Prize highlight the beauty of the earth we share. But they also expose the damage, deliberately or carelessly, we are inflicting on our own environment. So these images are a celebration and a reminder of the urgent need to change our ways.”  - Kofi Annan, Honorary President, Prix Pictet

Prix Pictet 2009 is the next exhibition at the Empty Quarter Gallery opening on 9th Feb and will go on till 9th Mar. The Prix Pictet is the world’s first major prize dedicated to photography and sustainability. It has a unique mandate – to use the power of photography to communicate vital messages to a global audience. This is art of the highest order, applied to confront the pressing social and environmental challenges of the new millennium.

This year the theme of the award is earth. Earth refers to the planet and the soil beneath our feet, to the marks that man makes on the face of the land - either directly through the creation of mines, toxic waste, urban wastelands, mountainous refuse dumps and blasted desert landscapes; or indirectly, through the scars left by fire, flood or famine and the impact of natural disasters: earthquakes, landslides and volcanoes or the migrations of displaced people.

Nadav Kander is the winner of the Prix Pictet 2009. He received the CHF100,000 from Kofi Annan at the Passage de Retz, Paris, on 22 October 2009. Ed Kashi was selected to complete the Prix Pictet Commission 2009.

Earth, the book of this year’s Prix Pictet, is published and distributed worldwide by teNeues and will be available to purchase at The Empty Quarter bookshop.

2009 Shortlist

Darren Almond - Britain

Christopher Anderson - Canada

Sammy Baloji - Congo (DRC)

Edward Burtynsky - Canada

Andreas Gursky - Germany

Naoya Hatakeyama - Japan

Nadav Kander - Britain

Ed Kashi  -USA

Abbas Kowsari - Iran

Yao Lu - China

Edgar Martins - Portugal

Chris Steele-Perkins - Britain

Jury
Francis Hodgson – Chairman  and Photography Critic, Financial Times
Benoit Aquin  - Winner, Prix Pictet 2008
Jan Dalley  - Arts Editor, Financial Times
Loa Haagen Pictet  - Art Consultant & Curator, Pictet & Cie
Zaha Hadid  - Founding Partner, Zaha Hadid Architects
Professor Sir David King  - Director, Smith School of Enterprise and Environment, University of Oxford and former Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government
Fumio Nanjo  - Director, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

The Empty Quarter Gallery
Gate Village, Building 02, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)
Phone: 9714 323 1210
Website: www.theemptyquarter.com
Prix Pictet website: www.prixpictet.com