Gallery of Photography Ireland is delighted to be hosting the eighth cycle of the Prix Pictet, which this year takes the theme of Hope. It is a particularly significant theme for a world now slowly emerging from the shadow of a devastating pandemic and facing equally formidable challenges in the years ahead.

The Prix Pictet is the world’s leading prize for photography and sustainability. Its purpose is to harness the power of photography to draw global attention to critical sustainability issues that threaten humanity and the planet that we share with the rest of the natural world. We are especially pleased to have two Irish photographers nominated for such a prestigious award.

The nominees featured in this exhibition are:

Shahidul Alam (BGD), Joana Choumali (CIV), Margaret Courtney-Clarke (NAM), Rena Effendi (AZ), Lucas Foglia (US), Janelle Lynch (US), Ross McDonnell (IRL), Gideon Mendel (SA), Ivor Prickett (IRL), Robin Rhode (SA), Awoiska van der Molen (NL) and Alexia Webster (SA).

The winner for this cycle of the prize is Joana Choumali. Her work Ça va aller consists of pictures taken following the terrorist attacks in the town of Grand-Bassam on the Ivory Coast, West Africa. Choumali wandered the empty streets, photographing with her iPhone so as not to intrude and disrupt people’s mourning. In this region, it is rare to discuss mental health and any psychological trauma is often seen as weakness. Conversations are often met with ‘ça va aller’ – a blanket expression for ‘it will be ok.’ Choumali found that she could process the pain she felt through embroidery. Adding colourful stitches to her images had a cathartic, meditative effect, allowing her to lay down her emotions. Embroidering these photographs became an act of channeling hope and resilience.

Over 600 photographers were nominated for Hope by a global network of nominators. After a rich debate the jury arrived at a final shortlist of twelve artists. As a group the artists present Hope as a fragile and elusive quality that is nevertheless capable of overcoming despair. Hope is present even in the darkest of these images. The late Kofi Annan, President of the Prix Pictet, touched on the subject of hope in his closing remarks at the Prix Pictet awards ceremony in November 2017: “It is perhaps in the ability to carry on in adversity that there lies hope for us all.

WINNER

Joana Choumali, Born 1974, Côte d’Ivoire, female. Lives and works in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Joana Choumali studied graphic arts in Casablanca, Morocco, and worked as an art director in an advertising agency before embarking on her photography career.

SHORTLIST

Shahidul Alam, Born 1955, Bangladesh, male. Lives and works in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photographer, writer, curator and human rights activist Shahidul Alam obtained a PhD in Chemistry from London University before taking up photography.

Margaret Courtney-Clarke, Born 1949, Namibia, female. Lives in Swakopmund, Namibia. Margaret Courtney-Clarke studied art and photography in South Africa and has spent the last four decades working as a photographer in Italy, the United States and across Africa.

“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

Rena Effendi, Born 1977, Azerbaijan, female. Lives and works in Istanbul, Turkey. Educated as a linguist, Rena Effendi’s early work focused on the oil industry’s effects on people’s lives in her region.

Lucas Foglia, Born 1983, United States, Male. Lives and works in San Francisco, United States. His third book, Human Nature, was published in 2017 by Nazraeli Press.

Janelle Lynch, Born 1969, USA, female. Lives and works in New York, United States. Lynch received an MFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts, New York where she studied with Joel Sternfeld and Stephen Shore. In 2003, she completed the Master Class in Photography, a one-on-one tutorial with Shore at Bard College.

Gideon Mendel, Born 1959, South Africa, male. Lives and works in London, United Kingdom. He studied Psychology and African History at the University of Cape Town. He began photographing in the 1980s, during the final years of apartheid.

Ross McDonnell, Born 1979, Ireland. Lives and works in New York. His work is manifested in long term documentary projects focused on themes of sustainability, conflict, migration and ecology.

Ivor Prickett, Born 1983, Ireland, male. Lives and works in Europe and the Middle East. Most recently the work of Ivor Prickett has focused on the fight to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Working exclusively for the The New York Times he spent months on the ground reporting in both words and pictures.

Robin Rhode, Born 1976, South Africa, male. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany. A multidisciplinary artist, he engages in a variety of visual languages such as photography, performance, drawing and sculpture to create arrestingly beautiful narratives that are brought to life using quotidian materials such as soap, charcoal, chalk and paint

Awoiska van der Molen, Born 1972, Netherlands, female. Lives and works in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She studied Architecture and Design followed by Photography at Minerva Art Academy Groningen, Netherlands.

Alexia Webster, Born 1979, South Africa. Lives and works in New York, United States. Alexia Webster is a photographer and visual artist whose work explores intimacy, family and identity across the African continent and beyond.