Fire 2021
Fabrice Monteiro, Untitled #11, 2016.
Prix Pictet announces Fire as the theme for the ninth cycle of the award. The Prix Pictet’s global network of over 300 nominators identified portfolios of work that align with the ninth theme. These portfolios were reviewed by the independent Jury chaired by Sir David King. The Fire shortlist was presented at the Rencontres d’Arles in July 2021. The ninth laureate Sally Mann was announced at the opening of the award exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London in December 2021.
Fire has hardly been out of the news since the inferno that consumed Notre Dame in Paris in early 2019. We have seen record rainforest blazes in the Amazon, forest and bush fires in Australia and conflagrations in California. It is the fourth element. Fire destroys and it renews. Fire means survival, renewal, and economic prosperity. Yet our abuse of this most capricious of elements is the source of most of our environmental woes.
Shortlist
Sally Mann, Blackwater, 2008-2012
Fabrice Monteiro, The Prophecy, 2013 - 2020
Rinko Kawauchi, Hanabi, 2001
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Wonder Beirut, 1998-2006
Lisa Oppenheim, Smoke, 2021
Daisuke Yokota, Matter / Burn Out, 2016
Carla Rippey, Immolation, 2009-2019
Christian Marclay, Fire, 2020
Brent Stirton, Burns Capital Of The World, 2013
David Uzochukwu, In The Wake, 2015-2020
Mark Ruwedel, LA Fires, 2017-2020
Mak Remissa, Left 3 Days, 2014
“Fire” virtual walkthrough
V&A London
Jury
The jury for the Prix Pictet are a group of leading experts in the visual arts from around the world including directors of major museums and galleries as well as journalists and critics. They lead the global search for images of high artistic quality and narrative power and fit the theme of a particular cycle.
Professor Sir David King, FRS (Chair)
Founder and Chair, Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge
Prof. Herminia Ibarra
Charles Handy Professor of Organisational Behaviour, London Business School
Emma Bowkett
Director of Photography, FT Weekend Magazine
Philippe Bertherat
President, Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva
Shahira Fahmy
Founder and Principal, Shahira Fahmy Architects, Cairo
Jeff Rosenheim
Curator of Photography, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Joanna Choumali
Winner, Prix Pictet ‘Hope’ (2019)
Duncan Forbes
Director, Department of Photography, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Winner interview
Prix Pictet Fire winner Sally Mann talks about her winning series Blackwater. Listen to more from Sally on our A Lens on Sustainability podcast.
