Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2011

Exhibition Dates: 5 April – 1 May 2011 Award Announcement: Tuesday 26 April 2011 Location: Ambika P3, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS Thomas Demand, Roe Ethridge, Jim Goldberg and Elad Lassry have been nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2011. This year’s selection, the fifteenth year of the Prize and the 40th anniversary of The Photographers’ Gallery, illustrates the diversity of the photographic medium, ranging from conceptual to social documentary photography. The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2011 is presented by The Photographers’ Gallery, London. For 2011 it will be shown at Ambika P3 at the University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 while the Gallery is closed for extensive redevelopment to create new galleries and an education floor, reopening late 2011. The annual award of £30,000 rewards a living photographer of any nationality, who has made the most significant contribution, in exhibition or publication format, to the medium of photography in Europe between 1 October 2009 and 30 September 2010. The winner will be announced at a special ceremony at Ambika P3 on 26 April 2011. The four shortlisted artists for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2011 are: Thomas Demand (b. 1964, Germany) has been nominated for his exhibition Nationalgalerie at Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany (18 September 2009 – 17 January 2010), travelling to Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (29 May – 22 August 2010). In this exhibition, Demand’s concise yet strangely unsettling images explore German social and political public life. Often using photographs drawn from the media, Demand turns these scenes into life-size and meticulously constructed three-dimensional paper models, that he then photographs. Ranging from the interior of the Bonn parliament of the late 1960s to the artist’s child’s room, the spaces subtly reveal the mechanisms of their making and challenge the viewer’s perception of reality by examining memory and photographic truth. Roe Ethridge (b. 1969, USA) has been nominated for his solo exhibition at Les Rencontres d’Arles 2010, France (3 July – 19 September 2010). Blurring the boundaries of the commercial with the editorial, and the mundane with the highbrow, Ethridge’s conceptual approach to photography is a playful attack on the traditions and conventions of the medium itself. Often borrowing ‘outtakes’ from his own commercial work, Ethridge readily counterpoises a catwalk shot with a still-life of a pumpkin or a pastoral scene of cows grazing. His distinct but elusive and poetic groupings of portraits, landscapes and still lifes create new associations and embrace the arbitrariness of the image and image making. Jim Goldberg (b. 1953, USA) has been nominated for his exhibition Open See at The Photographers’ Gallery, London (16 October 2009 – 31 January 2010). Initiated through a Magnum commission, Open See documents the experiences of refugee, immigrant and trafficked populations who travel from war torn, socially and economically devastated countries to make new lives in Europe. Fusing Polaroids, video, written text, ephemera and large and medium format photographs (taken in places as varied as Iraq, Bangladesh, China, The Balkans and Congo), Goldberg uses his varied and experimental approach to photographic storytelling to reflect on issues of migration and the conditions for desiring escape. Elad Lassry (b. 1977, Israel) has been nominated for his exhibition Elad Lassry at Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland (13 February – 25 April 2010). In his seductive yet detached photographic and filmic works, Lassry renders the over-familiar and clichéd, whether it be a kitten, an attractive model, lipsticks, a carton of eggs, peculiar. Drawing on analogue source material as inspiration, such as advertising and stock imagery, Lassry’s over-saturated photographs are often collages of pre-existing images or newly staged studio photographs alluding to the visual language of product photography. Constantly shifting between ‘original’ and found materials, Lassry instigates a dialogue between photography and the moving image to explore ideas of authorship, originality and appropriation. The Jury for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2011 is Alex Farquharson (Director, Nottingham Contemporary); Marloes Krijnen (Founding Director, Foam_Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam); Joel Sternfeld (artist, USA); and Anne-Marie Beckmann (Curator, Art Collection Deutsche Börse, Germany). Brett Rogers, Director of The Photographers’ Gallery, is the non-voting Chair. Brett Rogers, Chair of the Jury and Director of The Photographers’ Gallery, said ‘Ranging from the conceptual to the politically engaged, each nominee interrogates the photographic medium in his own distinct way. Thomas Demand’s clear yet strangely enigmatic constructed images explore German history since 1945. Infused with an element of nostalgia and the uncanny, Roe Ethridge blurs the commercial with the editorial to create a new sense of Americana. Open See continues Jim Goldberg’s experimental approach to storytelling combining image and text to document the plight of refugees and immigrants to Europe. Elad Lassry’s work plays with ideas of authorship, originality and appropriation through the innovative use of photography and film.’ Alexandra Hachmeister, Corporate Responsibility for Deutsche Börse, commented ‘Again the Jury members have selected four very strong finalists, varying in age and nationality as well as in their technique, subject matter and approach. All of them reflect the aims of the Prize, being an international and contemporary award. As title sponsor we are proud to announce together with The Photographers’ Gallery the shortlist for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2011.’ The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize continues to be one of the most prominent exhibitions at The Photographers’ Gallery and is amongst the most prestigious of the international arts awards. Deutsche Börse Group is one of the leading exchange organisations and a major sponsor of photographic art. The Group owns an extensive art collection of contemporary photography which, to date, includes more than 800 works by over eighty international artists. Further information on Deutsche Börse Group can be found at www.deutsche-boerse.com/art. After its run at Ambika P3, the exhibition will tour to C/O Berlin, Germany (12 May – 21 June 2011) followed by Deutsche Börse Group’s Frankfurt headquarters in Summer 2011. A catalogue to accompany the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2011 exhibition will be published with specially commissioned essays on each of the four shortlisted artists. It will be available to purchase from The Photographers’ Gallery Bookshop both online and at the Ambika P3 space. For further information or to request images please contact the Press Office: Call: Sam Trenerry +44 (0)20 7087 9333 or Email: press@photonet.org.uk For Deutsche Börse Media Relations call: Heiner Seidel +49 (0)69 211 17764 or Email: Heiner.Seidel@deutsche-boerse.com

Tags: