Twelve photographers compete for the Prix Pictet 2025, maintaining their cameras squarely on the theme of sustainability.
The Prix Pictet 2025, a renowned photography competition focusing on sustainability, has announced its shortlist of 12 talented photographers addressing the theme **"Storm"** in relation to environmental and societal challenges. The diverse group of artists includes Takashi Arai, Marina Caneve, Tom Fecht, Balazs Gardi, Roberto Huarcaya, Alfredo Jaar, Belal Khaled, Hannah Modigh, Baudouin Mouanda, Camille Seaman, Laetitia Vançon, and Patrizia Zelano.
The Prix Pictet, founded by the Geneva-based Pictet Group in 2008, encourages global discourse on sustainability issues by offering a different theme for each competitive cycle. This year's theme, "Storm," invites photographers to explore the impact of environmental and societal turmoil on our world.
Takashi Arai explores the nuclear history of Japan, the USA, and the Marshall Islands, highlighting the environmental and human impacts of nuclear disasters. Marina Caneve envisions a future catastrophe, drawing parallels with the 1966 floods in the Dolomites, Italy, emphasizing the potential for recurring natural disasters. Tom Fecht focuses on endangered cold-water plankton, illustrating the delicate balance and vulnerability of marine ecosystems.
Balazs Gardi chronicles the January 6, 2021, post-election attack on the U.S. Capitol Building, linking societal turmoil to broader environmental instability. Roberto Huarcaya's photography features an Amazonian palm lying on the bed of the Madre de Dios River, adding to the diverse interpretations of the theme.
Alfredo Jaar's work focuses on Utah's Great Salt Lake being destroyed by excessive water extraction, while Belal Khaled documents living in a tent outside the morgue at Nasser Hospital in Gaza after his house was destroyed. Hannah Modigh's photography is about Louisiana hurricanes, and Baudouin Mouanda recreates the 2020 lockdown floods in Brazzaville, Congo, in a flooded basement.
Camille Seaman's series documents supercell thunderstorms that can produce grapefruit-sized hail, tornadoes, and clouds that block out daylight. Laetitia Vançon presents a personal tribute to Odesa, Ukraine, and Patrizia Zelano photographed encyclopaedias, scientific treatises, and literary texts she saved from the waters during one of Venice's highest-ever recorded tides, in 2019.
The winner of the Prix Pictet 2025 will receive 100,000 Swiss francs and will be announced on 25 September 2025 at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Their works will be exhibited at the museum, and more information can be found on the competition's website, prix.pictet.com.
Sir David King, chair of the Prix Pictet jury, states that our planet is a more dangerous place to live than ever before due to the climate catastrophe. The competition aims to bring awareness to these issues and inspire change through powerful and thought-provoking photography.
The Prize Pictet, delving into varied interpretations of 'Storm' as a symbol for environmental and societal challenges, has shortlisted photographers whose works touch upon aspects of lifestyle and home-and-garden, such as Takashi Arai's exploration of nuclear disasters' impacts on homes and communities, or Balazs Gardi's documentation of societal unrest at a symbolic civic location, the US Capitol Building.
