Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2024

Eclectic exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery of the shortlisted finalists of this prestigious photography award.

The award goes to at outstanding body of work exhibited or published in Europe in the previous 12 months and the show highlights the work of the top four artists.

This year featured two artists who had had retrospectives and one of these, VALUE EXPORT, for Austria was showcased with a selection of work by this feminist photographer and performance artist over 5 decades. I’m not sure the work translated very well as static images.

Despite being shortlisted for a retrospective Hrair Sarkissian was represented by two works. One was an eerie soundscape recording of exhuming bodies from a Spanish Civil War mass grave but the photographic element was 50 photographs of the empty homes of people who had disappeared in conflict which were very moving.

In the floor below I liked Gavin Gill and Rajesh Vangad’s book blending Gill’s photography of India with Vangad’s indigenous art commenting on community knowledge, resilience and agency.

My favourite however was Lebohang Kganye’s wonderful installation of life-sized cut outs from photo-albums arranged into tableaux. It was a relief to find something that made me smile!

Closes 2 June 2024


Review

Guardian


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