“Storm” Prix Pictet 2025

When Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre introduced the daguerreotype to French society, he did not conceive humans as the authors of photographic images. Instead, he presented nature itself as the creator, since it imprinted its image on the surface through light. A perspective that is both poetic and humble. Plus, a perspective that helped foster the idea of photography as an “objective” and “realistic” art, whilst it reminds us that we are first and foremost witnesses and then co-authors of these images. Reflections and tensions that have since been addressed and appreciated by various critics and associations, including the Prix Pictet group, which each year awards one of the world's most prestigious photography prizes.

Since its creation in 2008, the award has been characterized by its focus on sustainability, social commitment, and the humanitarian power of art. In other words, the possibility of using both the objective and poetic qualities of photography to generate realistic portraits of technical excellence, conceptual depth, and emotional transmission. For this reason, the artists nominated for this award, and above all its winners, are recognized for their outstanding technique, compelling narrative, and genuine interest in their surroundings. Among those who have had the honor of receiving this recognition are Benoit Aquin, Valérie Belin, and Richard Mosse.

This year, to mark the start of the new cycle, the Photography Centre at the Victoria & Albert Museum is hosting “Storm,” a group exhibition featuring all the artists considered for the Prix Pictet Award. The exhibition aims to invite reflection on the latest social and political upheavals around the world, which, despite causing uncertainty and making us feel increasingly close to a crisis, also present the desire and possibility for change. Among the participants, whose nationalities and backgrounds span a variety of contexts, we would like to highlight three. On the one hand, Roberto Huarcaya, a visual artist from Peru represented by the Rolf Art gallery, is showing his series Amazograma, in which he explores and transforms, from an anthropological perspective, the natural forms of jungles, oceans, and forests. On the other hand, Patricia Zelano, an Italian artist with studies in pre-Columbian ethnoarchaeology, whose series Acqua Alta a Venezia expresses the feared disappearance of the Italian city and its memory due to flooding. Finally, Alfredo Jaar, a Chilean artist whose work also extends to the fields of architecture and performance, was the winner of this cycle with his series The End, in which he studies the Great Salt Lake in Utah, United States, a complex natural wonder that has become an “environmental nuclear bomb” due to excessive water extraction.
https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/prix-pictet-2025-storm