M’Hammed Kilito, winner of the 2023
Louis Roederer Photography Prize for Sustainability
12/05/2023
The Louis Roederer Foundation created the Louis Roederer Photography Prize for Sustainability to support contemporary photographers and artistic creation in a broad sense, while highlighting sustainability and environmental issues.
The theme of the 2023 edition “Flow”, beyond its original definition, represents circulation and exchange, as well as the constant dynamic between nature and people.
M’Hammed Kilito © Vladimir Gheorghiu
M’Hammed Kilito, 2023 winner
After several rounds of judging, a jury of nine personalities from the world of art decided to reward the photographer M’Hammed Kilito for his series entitled Before It’s Gone. Thus, Frédéric Rouzaud, President of the Louis Roederer Foundation, awarded him with the second Louis Roederer Photography Prize for Sustainability.
M’Hammed Kilito is a documentary photographer and a National Geographic explorer based in Casablanca, Morocco. His practice focuses on the relationship between groups or individuals and their environments. His works capture narratives that facilitate an understanding of this relationship, covering issues related to cultural identity, the sociology of work, and climate change.
Before Its Gone Morocco © M’Hammed Kilito
Before Its Gone Morocco © M’Hammed Kilito
Before Its Gone Morocco © M’Hammed Kilito
Before Its Gone Morocco © M’Hammed Kilito
Before Its Gone Morocco © M’Hammed Kilito
Before Its Gone Morocco © M’Hammed Kilito
Before Its Gone Morocco © M’Hammed Kilito
Before It’s Gone Morocco © M’Hammed Kilito
Before It’s Gone Morocco © Mhammed Kilito
Before It’s Gone Morocco © Mhammed Kilito
Before It’s Gone
His series Before It’s Gone is an ongoing long-term project that documents life in oases with a focus on the complex and multidimensional issues of oasis degradation in Morocco and its impact on their inhabitants. Over the past few years, he has visited many oases, where he has made strong connections with their inhabitants. He was able to understand this rich environment whose water is the vital element in the genesis of oases and their biodiversity, but also its glaring realities: desertification, recurrent droughts and fires, changes in agricultural practices, overexploitation of natural resources, rural exodus, and the sharp drop in the water table are all imminent threats to the existence of oases.
Audrey Bazin, Artistic Director of the Louis Roederer Foundation and jury member, commented: “Photography is a great framework to discuss the complexities that implies our contemporary life and especially sustainable development. M’Hammed Kilito’s strength lies, among other things, in his ability to illustrate in a few images a possible symbiosis between Man and Nature, here the oasis, as well as its fragile balance. His photographs, both poetic and biting, have the capacity to question, to move and thus to set knowledge in motion by connecting us to the world.”
The works of M’Hammed Kilito as well as those from the two other finalists, Hengki Koentjoro and Yasuhiro Ogawa, are exhibited at The WhiteBox, Nobu Hotel Portman Square in London, until 1st June 2023.