Prix Pictet talks programme at Paris Photo
Exhibitions and Events · 22 Oct 2026
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At Paris Photo 2026, Prix Pictet presents two compelling conversations with three leading photographers.
Alfredo Jaar, The End (GSL_a), 2025
Wednesday, 11 November, 3:30pm
Bearing witness: Laeticia Vançon on Photographing Ukraine
Laetitia Vançon discusses her recent work in Ukraine with curator Wiktoria Michalkiewicz, reflecting on photography’s role in documenting a country and its people who are transformed by war and its consequences. The talk offers an insight into the photographer’s long running engagement with Ukraine. Through intimate stories her work becomes the portrait of a generation learning to resist, rebuild and redefine itself, but also an image of the country's own future.
Saturday 14 November at 2pm
The Cost of Beauty
Valérie Belin and Alfredo Jaar join curator Brandei Estes to explore how beauty can confront uncomfortable truths. Taking their Prix Pictet winning series as a starting point, they discuss photography’s power to address consumption, environmental loss and human impact, and ask whether seductive images can make us look more closely at the world around us.
Access to the talks requires a Paris Photo ticket.
Laetitia Vançon
Vançon’s work primarily explores humanitarian issues, with a focus on resilience, identity, and the human condition.
Vançon worked as a chemical engineer in France and South Africa until 2009. From 2010 to 2012, she stepped away from a defined career path, settled in Germany, and started using photography as a form of healing to process personal traumas. This evolved into long-term documentary work.
She completed her studies at the Danish Photojournalism School, Aarhus, in 2014.
Since 2015, Vançon has been a regular contributor to The New York Times. Alongside her reporting, she developed At the End of the Day (2016–18), which documents the lives of young people in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland.
Vançon’s work in Odesa, Ukraine, won the Feature Photography prize from the Overseas Press Club of America in 2023. Her work has also been recognised by the Sony World Photography Awards (2019); Pictures of the Year International, United States (2020); Lucie Foundation, Los Angeles (2023); the Leica Oscar Barnack Award, Wetzlar, Germany (2023); Siena International Photo Awards, Italy (2023); and Life Framer, London (2024).
Vançon worked as a chemical engineer in France and South Africa until 2009. From 2010 to 2012, she stepped away from a defined career path, settled in Germany, and started using photography as a form of healing to process personal traumas. This evolved into long-term documentary work.
She completed her studies at the Danish Photojournalism School, Aarhus, in 2014.
Since 2015, Vançon has been a regular contributor to The New York Times. Alongside her reporting, she developed At the End of the Day (2016–18), which documents the lives of young people in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland.
Vançon’s work in Odesa, Ukraine, won the Feature Photography prize from the Overseas Press Club of America in 2023. Her work has also been recognised by the Sony World Photography Awards (2019); Pictures of the Year International, United States (2020); Lucie Foundation, Los Angeles (2023); the Leica Oscar Barnack Award, Wetzlar, Germany (2023); Siena International Photo Awards, Italy (2023); and Life Framer, London (2024).
Valérie Belin
Belin trained at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Bourges from 1983 to 1988 and then went on to study the philosophy of art at the Université Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris, where she was awarded a Diplôme d’Études Approfondies in 1989.
Her work has been shown at international venues including the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2015), and PHI Center, Montreal, Quebec (2014). Her work has appeared in several group exhibitions including A World of Its Own: Photographic Practices in the Studio at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014); Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow (2013); Nathalie Obadia Gallery, Brussels (2014); and Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York (2013). Among the collections that have acquired her work are the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Maison européenne de la photographie, Paris; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea, Seoul.
Her work has been shown at international venues including the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2015), and PHI Center, Montreal, Quebec (2014). Her work has appeared in several group exhibitions including A World of Its Own: Photographic Practices in the Studio at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014); Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow (2013); Nathalie Obadia Gallery, Brussels (2014); and Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York (2013). Among the collections that have acquired her work are the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Maison européenne de la photographie, Paris; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea, Seoul.
Alfredo Jaar
Jaar has participated in the Venice Biennale (1986, 2007, 2009 and 2013) and the Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (1987, 1989, 2010 and 2021), as well as Documenta in Kassel, Germany (1987 and 2002). Solo exhibitions of his work have been held at the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne (2007); Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlinische Galerie and Neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst, all in Berlin (2012); Les Rencontres d’Arles, France (2013); Yorkshire Sculpture Park, United Kingdom (2017); Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town (2020); SESC Pompeia, São Paulo (2021); and Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (2023).
Jaar has received numerous awards including the Hiroshima Art Prize in 2018 and the Hasselblad Award in Sweden in 2020. In 2024, he was awarded the IV Mediterranean Albert Camus Prize in Spain, followed by the Edward MacDowell Medal in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in 2025.
His work can be found in dozens of public and private collections, including The Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museu de Arte de São Paulo; Tate, London; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; M+, Hong Kong; and Tokushima Modern Art Museum, Japan. He became a Guggenheim Fellow in 1985 and a MacArthur Fellow in 2000, both in the United States.
Jaar has received numerous awards including the Hiroshima Art Prize in 2018 and the Hasselblad Award in Sweden in 2020. In 2024, he was awarded the IV Mediterranean Albert Camus Prize in Spain, followed by the Edward MacDowell Medal in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in 2025.
His work can be found in dozens of public and private collections, including The Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museu de Arte de São Paulo; Tate, London; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; M+, Hong Kong; and Tokushima Modern Art Museum, Japan. He became a Guggenheim Fellow in 1985 and a MacArthur Fellow in 2000, both in the United States.