confinement confinement d Contents 2 Foreword – Renaud de Planta 4 Preface – Stephen Barber and Michael Benson 6 Essay – Peter Frankopan 10 Essay – Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi 13–100 Photographs 14 Ross McDonnell 58 Margaret Courtney-Clarke 16 Ilit Azoulay 60 Chris Steele-Perkins 18 Saskia Groneberg 62 Nadav Kander 20 Philippe Chancel 64 Nyaba Léon Ouedraogo 22 Shahidul Alam 66 Edgar Martins 24 Gideon Mendel 68 An-My Lê 26 Ori Gersht 70 Maxim Dondyuk 28 Reza Deghati 72 Susan Derges 30 Ed Kashi 74 Joana Choumali 32 Chris Jordan 76 Janelle Lynch 34 Naoya Hatakeyama 78 Edmund Clark 36 Stéphane Couturier 80 Mandy Barker 38 Matthew Brandt 82 Awoiska van der Molen 40 Robin Rhode 84 Mary Mattingly 42 Sohei Nishino 86 Edward Burtynsky 44 Rena Effendi 88 Abbas Kowsari 46 Joel Sternfeld 90 Alexia Webster 48 Benoit Aquin 92 Richard Mosse 50 Laurie Simmons 94 Valérie Belin 52 Brent Stirton 96 Pavel Wolberg 54 Motoyuki Daifu 98 Rinko Kawauchi 56 Munem Wasif 101–106 Artist Statements 107 Prix Pictet 108 Advisory Board 109 The Jury Process 110 Acknowledgments Foreword the purpose of the Prix Pictet, to quote Gro Harlem Brundtland at its launch in 2008, is ‘to ensure that matters of sustainability remain at the forefront of global debate, where they need to belong’. In the twelve years since, the two greatest threats to life on the planet – excess resource depletion and damaging climate change – have only intensified. The Prix Pictet has documented the growing sustainability crisis in images raw and beautiful from across the world. In doing so it has become one of a handful of leading global prizes for any type or genre of photography. The smartphone revolution has made photography a medium of communication used and understood by all. It’s a medium that transcends language in its power to communicate, which magnifies the potential of the Prix Pictet to influence government, business and society throughout the world. In our own field, a growing belief is taking hold among investors that environmental, social and governance risks are tangible threats to unreformed investment portfolios. Asset and wealth managers such as ourselves realise that our actions on behalf of our clients can be an enormous force for good, by changing the behaviour of the companies we invest in for the better. This book is published in a year that will forever be imprinted in our memories as the year of the Covid-19 pandemic; of lockdown, of confinement – changing the way we work and live in what Peter Frankopan describes in his opening essay as ‘the largest social science experiment in history’. Some changes will be permanent, others will fade with time. Perhaps, in the brief interlude of clean city air and clear skies, we have learnt something about our impact on our planet. Nor should we forget that the year has also amplified economic inequalities within societies and between nations, with lasting effects. Here, in their own compelling images and words, 43 of the more than 90 past shortlisted Prix Pictet photographers give us their personal response to the Covid-19 crisis. Renaud de Planta On behalf of the Managing Partners 3 Preface within days of the first lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic, it became clear that it would be months before the Prix Pictet would be able to exhibit ‘in real life’ again. So we asked a young designer, Gabriel Stones, to create an online walk-through of the November 2019 Victoria and Albert Museum Hope exhibition. This initiative helped both to sustain the momentum of the stalled tour, and to open up the exhibition to a global audience that could not otherwise have seen the show. But it was not enough. By this time news and social media had become saturated with images of deserted cityscapes, overflowing hospitals and returning wildlife. We decided, in a commission project with Fiona Shields, The Guardian’s director of photography, to harness the ability of the Prix Pictet’s shortlisted artists to move beyond these emerging clichés and point to a way forward. This commission was the motivating force behind this book. Each of the artists – Nadav Kander (Earth), Alexia Webster (Hope), Rena Effendi (Hope and Power) and Rinko Kawauchi (Space) – touched on themes of isolation, confinement and resource consumption. As Rena Effendi notes, ‘I set out to portray the city in crisis and confinement, but what I found was a diverse social fabric where pockets of hope and human resilience prevail’. Nadav Kander writes here, ‘This event is willing us human beings collectively to move towards balancing our indiscriminate use of nature’s resources. This is not a warped reality; it is just reality and it comes from man being out of balance with nature.’ These four artists had been working out their creative response to the crisis well before the Guardian project. We therefore issued exactly the same challenge to all 88 living photographers shortlisted for the eight cycles of the Prix Pictet to date. The result is an extraordinarily rich repertoire of images by 43 photographers, including these four Guardian projects. Also, on pages 102–106, are detailed, poignant and often moving artists’ statements which repay careful study. Some, such as An-My Lê’s Hospital Ship sailing serenely beneath the arches of the Verrazzano- Narrows Bridge in New York or Sohei Nishino’s shadowy moorings, give up their secrets slowly. Others, like Ross McDonnell’s masked mannequins or Chris Steele-Perkins’ anguished self-portrait, are more visceral. Here is a series of images that both respond to the issues that confront us today and begin to plot a route through to a new future and to new ways of thinking about the world. Stephen Barber Michael Benson Chairman, Prix Pictet Director, Prix Pictet 4 5 The year the Earth stood still Peter Frankopan In the ancient world, few bothered meaningful ways. And then there are those with with dates. The way people whom we can seem to have nothing in common and yet from whom we sometimes learn most as a result. thought and talked about the We live in a world that is complex, challenging and past was by linking to events that where each of us is unique. And yet we are all sailing through time as fellow travellers, witnessing and affected the whole community – reacting to the same events while experiencing our a battle, perhaps; or the murder own triumphs and setbacks, our own successes and challenges, our own relief and pain. The thing that Abbas Kowsari of a ruler. Extreme weather events, is so interesting about our species is our ability to learn Cleric volunteers bury the body of a COVID-19 victim on 10 April 2020, in Abjer Village near Qaem Shahr, Iran like major rivers freezing over, from, to empathise with and to try to understand each other. So the events of 2020 have challenged or natural disasters, such as what it means to be human. that we gathered in the present but form the basis Yet the ideas about lockdown, about being isolated volcanic eruptions or earthquakes of how we remember the past. A world where we and about time standing still were not shared by could visit exhibitions and see original artworks all. The wealthy countries of the West had different were central points of reference And so here we are in 2020: the year the Earth stood with our own eyes. choices available to them to those with low and to explain when other incidents still. It did not stand still for everybody. But it stood still Instead, we have been left with a series of blank middle incomes. The developed world deployed for hundreds of millions – indeed billions of people. canvases, with the dull passing of time as the emergency financial parachutes to stabilise and save took place: at the same time; just Countries went into lockdown, with citizens being grains of sand have fallen slowly and relentlessly their economies – keeping businesses afloat, paying before or after. And of course what allowed out of their homes in specific circumstances, through the hourglass. One day blended blankly workers to stay at home and providing jaw-dropping often requiring permission and paperwork. into the next. Routines were established, and then amounts of credit to the banking system. mattered most to each individual International travel came to an end. The way we took hold and became like ruts in a well-travelled The United States alone committed to a package were their own personal milestones. worked and communicated changed overnight. road: there was no commute; no quick drink in a worth trillions of dollars, even as President Trump Some refused to be constrained, while others café; no spontaneous evening plans. Just at home, took aim at state governors who urged lockdowns, Rinko Kawauchi From the series: Keeping the Fire Going lacked the ability to enforce restrictions or could with loved ones. Or for many, alone. urging Americans to ‘Liberate Michigan’, ‘Liberate As I grow older, I understand that more and more. simply not afford to do so. Hundreds of thousands Virginia’ and ‘Liberate Minnesota’. Infections and Years blend into each other. I can’t tell 2005 before layering soft butter on toast to help warm us to feel that period, to remember what it was like died, and millions around the globe were infected – We have been left with a series deaths spread like wildfire, underpinning fears from 2006 any more than I can distinguish it from back up. Thinking of our own precious moments to live through those times, I listen to the music all thanks to the emergence of a novel coronavirus of blank canvases ..