POWER

Since last October, when Luc Delahaye won this year’s Prix Pictet, its exhibition entitled Power – the competition theme for 2011/12 – has travelled all over the world. This was the fifth time that this prestigious photographic competition, whose €100,000 prize money equals that awarded by the Dutch Erasmus competition, has been held. It was also the first time that a Dutch photographer, Jacqueline Hassink, was honoured with a place on the shortlist of 12 photographers.

Jacqueline Hassink, Luc Delahaye, Carl de Keyzer and Guy Tillim are all old friends of Huis Marseille; we have both collected and exhibited their work in recent years. For Huis Marseille this award was a perfect occasion to bring the Prix Pictet Power exhibition to Amsterdam, and also to seize the opportunity to examine the photography award phenomenon, which is a remarkable one in many respects: to look closely at what it does and what it means.

The 2012 shortlist comprised Robert Adams (2011 Prix Pictet award winner), Daniel Beltrá, Mohamed Bourouïssa, Philippe Chancel, Edmund Clark, Carl de Keyzer, Luc Delahaye, Rena Effendi, Jacqueline Hassink, An-My Lê, Joel Sternfeld, and Guy Tillim.