The Prix Pictet (Pictet prize) is an international award in photography and sustainability. It was founded in 2008 by the Geneva-based private Banque Pictet. The mandate of the award is to use the power of photography to communicate messages about sustainability to a global audience. Its goal is to uncover photography of the highest order, applied to current social and environmental challenges. The prize is judged by an independent jury and carries a prize of CHF 100,000. There is also a Commission, in which a nominated photographer is invited to document a sustainability project.
Process
Entry to the Prix Pictet is by nomination. As of February 2013, there were over 200 Prix Pictet nominators, a group of industry experts from around the world consisting of photographers, gallerists, agency heads, academics, authors, publishers, curators, photography foundation and others. Each nominated photographer is asked to provide a series of pictures coherently defined, focused on the theme of the award and limited to ten images.
The judges do not discriminate between photographs of different genres, or make assumptions about the types of audience for any class of photograph. After arriving at a shortlist of 12 portfolios, the jury make their final decision in a gallery setting. The winner of the Prix Pictet receives a cash prize of CHF 100,000, announced at an opening ceremony of the exhibition of shortlisted artists. The second element of the prize is a Commission, awarded to one of the nominated photographers, not necessarily shortlisted, at the discretion of Pictet. The Commission is related to a sustainability project supported by Pictet.
The pictures chosen by the judges travel the world for a year in a major exhibition.
The Prix Pictet was first awarded in 2008 and operates on a cycle of about 18 months. Past themes were Water, Earth, Growth, Power and Consumption. From May 2014 the prize has been presented in partnership with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.