THINKING SUSTAINABILITY PRIZE
© Irene Barlian – Land of the Sea
© Adam Ferguson – Lake Huffer, Silent Wind, Big Sky
© Maya Goded – Healing, Earth and Body
© Pierrot Men – The washerwoman of Tsaranoro Valley, Madagascar
© Mónica de Miranda – Whistle for the wind, The Island
© Ana Elisa Sotelo & Sadith Silvano – The Spirit of the Jungle, Portraits of the Multiverse
The Thinking Sustainability Prize rewards a photographer who tackles an issue linked to sustainable development, through the prism of natural sciences or humanities. The aim is to contribute to an in-depth reflection on sustainable development, offering solutions and reasoning to anyone who is curious and keen to better understand the issues at stake on a large scale.
Ana Elisa Sotelo
“Ana Elisa Sotelo’s practice not only provides an insight into the contemporary languages of photography and its potential by producing entanglements between the captured image and the ancestral Kené embroidery and painting techniques and history. It also deals with issues of sustainability questioning the colonial fracture that separates the human from the non human and produces an extractive world-system. I nominated her for the Prize because I believe this mode of approaching art practice is essential to shifting the way we perceive and experience the world.”
I spent many months putting together a jury and selecting nominators who were different from the usual awards. I wanted new voices as well as established ones. I wanted new voices as well as established ones.
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18 nominators from around the world
The nominators, experts in photography, had to represent all the continents (America being divided into two: North and South). They had to be from the continent they were representing, or have lived there for at least five years, to ensure they had an in-depth knowledge of the local cultural ecosystem. They each had three months to select 3 photographers from the continent they represented (or who had lived there for at least five years) to take a thoughtful look at sustainable development in their own region.
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54 applications
The jury – which had to be interested in the issue of sustainable development – is multinational with experts in photography as well as a poet, a philosopher, a multidisciplinary artist and directors of cultural institutions, in order to benefit from a cross-disciplinary view of the candidates’ proposals. The jury then had three months to explore and study the 54 entries suggested by the nominators.
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6 finalists
Each member of the jury voted for their favourite artist by continent, then for their winner from the 6 finalists.
Finalists 2024
The nature and challenges of sustainable development are different from one continent to another, which is why each of them is represented.
To ensure a diversity of points of view, each edition of Thinking Sustainability – every two years – sees a complete change of commissioners and members of the jury for the Prize. All are selected for their unique voice and vision and the fresh perspectives they bring, often distinctly separate from those usually put forward.
These voices, whether emerging or established, have complete freedom to tackle the subject of their choice, suggest a photographer to champion, or vote for the work they wish to support. In this way, we discover a wide range of photographic perspectives.
© Mónica de Miranda, Whistle for the wind, The Island
