Announcing the Jury
Before we announced the 2023's Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize shortlist, we asked our jury members to reflect on what this year's shortlist says about photography today:
From memberships (order by 17 December) to books, film and cameras (order by 19 December) - we've got all your photography gifts covered this Christmas!
Before we announced the 2023's Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize shortlist, we asked our jury members to reflect on what this year's shortlist says about photography today:
The shortlist presents some of the strongest voices working with the media worldwide. A bold and diverse list of practitioners, from different generations, that expose through their own stories the often hidden and underestimated politics of image making, expanding our visual perception and offering us a chance to question our history, our present and rebuild our future.
Thyago Nogueira on what the shortlist says about photography today.
Thyago Nogueira
Thyago Nogueira is the head of the Contemporary Photography Department at Instituto Moreira Salles, São Paulo, and is the chief editor of ZUM photography magazine. He organised exhibitions such as Claudia Andujar: The Yanomami Struggle (Barbican, 2020), William Eggleston: American Color (2015), Body Against Body: the battle of images from photography to live streaming (2017), Mauro Restiffe: São Paulo, Beyond Reach (2014) and Rosângela Rennó: Utopic Rio (2017). He has also guest edited Aperture magazine dedicated to São Paulo photography (2014), co-curated the Offside project with Magnum during Brazil’s World Cup, and chaired Hasselblad Award in 2019. His retrospective exhibition on Daido Moriyama will open at C/O Berlin in 2023 and travel around Europe.
Mahtab Hussain
Mahtab Hussain is a British artist who explores the important relationship between religious identity, cultural heritage, and social displacement. His themes develop through long-term research articulating a visual language that challenges the prevailing concepts of multiculturalism. Hussain received a BA in History of Art at Goldsmith College, specializing in Postcolonialism, Memory and Photography, and an MA in Museum and Gallery Management from City University in London, England. He was awarded an Arts Humanities Research Council Grant and completed an MA in Photography at Nottingham Trent University. Hussain has received numerous awards and commissions and has published four artist books. In 2017, his series You Get Me? published by MACK Books, won the Light Work Photobook Award. Going Back to Where I Came From, published by Ikon Gallery, supported by Arts Council England and The British Council. The Quiet Town of Tipton, published by Dewi Lewis and commissioned by Multistory and The Commonality of Strangers published by New Art Exchange supported by Arts Council England. Hussain is currently working with Chris Boot
What does the shortlist say about photography today?
"This year's DB shortlist is letting in light around the fringes of photography. Light that has always been available but not fully understood. This light is dark, yet precious, not easy to love, but one that heals, and creates a stronger understanding of who we are, where we came from, and how we can collectively move forward in the world around us." - Mahtab Hussain.
Nathalie Herschdorfer
Nathalie Herschdorfer is a curator and art historian specializing in the history of photography. In 2022, she was appointed Director of Photo Elysée, the photography museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. Before that, as Director of the Museum of Fine Arts Le Locle, she organized important shows featuring the work of Louise Bourgeois, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Stanley Kubrick, Vik Muniz, Alex Prager, Viviane Sassen, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Andy Warhol, amongst others. She is an active voice in contemporary photography and has been invited to organize numerous exhibitions outside Switzerland. She teaches the history of photography at the Lausanne University of Art and Design (ECAL) and is the author of several books, including: Body: The Photography Book; Mountains by Magnum Photographers; The Thames& Hudson Dictionary of Photography; Coming into Fashion: A Century of Photography at Condé Nast; and Afterwards: Contemporary Photography Confronting the Past.
What does the shortlist say about photography today?
"Through the number and quality of entries received, I witnessed what this Prize means to the photography community. With so many good exhibitions and books to consider, one gets a strong sense about the pulse of what photography is today. Over the years, the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation has celebrated important figures in contemporary photography. The four nominees this year show how photographic images continue to give a strong commentary on today's world." - Nathalie Herschdorfer
Brett Rogers, OBE
Since 2006, Brett Rogers OBE has been the Director of The Photographers’ Gallery, London, the first publicly funded Gallery dedicated solely to photography in the UK. Founded in 1971, it established early on a reputation for its independent approach to curating and its promotion of photography in all its myriad forms. Under Rogers’ leadership for the past 16 years, the Gallery has continued to be recognized internationally as an innovator within the field of photography and image culture. Before joining the Gallery in 2006, Brett was Deputy Director of Visual Arts at the British Council, where she was responsible for establishing the British Council’s Photography Collection and curating an ambitious programme of international touring exhibitions on British photography. Her role at the British Council also encompassed promoting contemporary visual arts, fashion and design. Her key role in contributing towards photography was recognized by University of the Arts London by appointing her a Visiting Fellow and in 2018 she was the recipient of the Royal Photographic Society’s Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award.
What does the shortlist say about photography today?
"As the outgoing Director I could not be more delighted with the calibre of this year’s shortlist. It exemplifies the Prize’s dexterity in reflecting where contemporary photography is moving at a specific moment and, as always, the selection of the four nominees is surprising in bringing together established with much lesser known names." - Brett Rogers, OBE
Anne-Marie Beckmann
Anne-Marie Beckmann is a German-French art historian and curator. She has been the Director of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation since August 2015. Since 1999 she has curated the Art Collection Deutsche Börse and developed the company's cultural programme, as well as curating photography exhibitions at the Deutsche Börse headquarters and in several art institutions. She has been involved in curation of the RAY photography triennal in Frankfurt/Main since 2012. Recently co-curation projects include the exhibition “Women War Photographers. From Lee Miller to Anja Niedringhaus” for the museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf/Germany in 2019 and “Open for Business. Magnum photographers on commission” for the Rencontres de la photographie in Arles in 2020. Anne-Marie has published several photography catalogues, including six on the Art Collection Deutsche Börse. She is a lecturer in the photography department at the University of Art and Design in Offenbach/Main.
What does the shortlist say about photography today?
"The works by this year's finalists show once again how significant, and at the same time complicated, the effect of the medium of photography, which has so often been declared dead, is on our perception of society and the possibility of changing it. It also shows the power, visual diversity and beauty that artists of different generations elicit from photography time and again." - Anne-Marie Beckmann
Originally established in 1996 and in partnership with the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation since 2016, this long-standing and influential annual prize identifies and rewards artists and projects considered to have made the most significant contribution to photography over the previous 12 months. Over its nearly 27-year history, the Prize has become renowned as one of the most important awards for photographers as well as a barometer of photographic development, foregrounding outstanding, innovative and thought-provoking work that pushes the boundaries of the medium and exemplifies its resonance and relevance as a cultural force.