The third cycle of the Prix Pictet launches at Les Rencontres d’Arles, the world's foremost photography festival, on 8 July 2010.
The new cycle will be announced at the Théâtre Antique, Arles, with a special presentation of work by the four Prix Pictet laureates to date. Benoit Aquin's 2010 Haiti project is among the new work to be featured.
The Prix Pictet, conceived and run by the Swiss private bank Pictet & Cie, is the first photography award to provide a global platform for the application of art to the critical issues of global sustainability.
Its honorary president is HE Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Independent collectors of fine photography -- many of whom belong to the ARTKABINETT social network -- will be watching the event.
Launched in 2008 by the Geneva-based private bank Pictet & Cie, the Prix Pictet has rapidly established itself as the world’s leading prize in photography and sustainability. It has a unique mandate – to use the power of photography to communicate vital messages to a global audience. The goal is to uncover art of the highest order, applied to confront the pressing social and environmental challenges of the new millennium.
The prize currently plays to a global audience of over 400 million. The exhibitions of photographs shortlisted for the first two cycles of the Prix Pictet have toured the world, so far they have been shown in Paris, 
Thessaloniki, Dubai, Hong Kong, Eindhoven, Dresden, Bonn, London, Berlin, Lausanne Geneva, Dublin and Moscow, and further exhibitions are planned for Milan, Madrid and Delhi.
As Kofi Annan, the Prix Pictet’s Honorary President, wrote in his recent forward to Earth – the book of the second Prix Pictet, ‘together, these photographs by the artists shortlisted for the Prix Pictet highlight the beauty of the earth we share. But they also expose the damage, deliberately or carelessly, we are inflicting on our own environment. So these images are a celebration and a reminder of the urgent need to change our ways.’
The Prix Pictet has two elements: the prize of CHF 100,000 awarded to the photographer who, in the opinion of the independent jury, has produced a series of work that speaks most powerfully to the theme of the award; and the Commission, awarded by the Partners of Pictet & Cie, in which a shortlisted photographer is invited to undertake a field trip to a region where the Bank is supporting a sustainability project. 
The theme of the first Prix Pictet was Water, and the second Prix Pictet was Earth. The third cycle of the award will focus on the theme of Growth. At once a blessing and a curse, Growth, in all its forms, presents one of the great conundrums facing humanity in the early decades of the twenty-first century.
In the two years since the prize was established, it has become the world’s leading award for photography and sustainability, reaching an estimated global audience of over 400 million through the media, book publishing and travelling exhibitions.
Sir David King, who chairs the Jury for the third cycle, said, “The Prix Pictet is no longer arriving; it has arrived. Today, there is hardly an artist on the planet who feels too grand to enter. Selecting a winner will be a demanding privilege, but also a great pleasure.”
Commenting on the theme, Sir David said, “While rapid economic expansion in emerging markets has lifted countless millions out of poverty, there is a darker side to growth that threatens to undermine the very foundations of our civilization. I am confident that the artists nominated will once again draw attention to the deep problems of sustainability. I also hope they will point to some of the solutions.” 
Nadav Kander, who won the 2009 award and is now a judge for the prize said that ‘my Yangtze project marked a significant shift in my photographic practice. Over the course of three years I travelled the length of the river and everywhere I went the human consequences of the dizzying pace of development in China were evident. My work arose from a desire to capture the disorienting effects of epic industrial landscapes on the lives and traditions of people and communities. While I did not set out to win prizes, the Prix Pictet was an important and timely validation of this work and has given me the added confidence to pursue similar projects in future.’
Ed Kashi, who gained the 2009 Commission, commented, “Receiving the Prix Pictet Commission has had a profound impact on my work and on my conception of how a visual artist and their work should be treated. The award, while allowing me to produce an important and timely body of work, is accompanied by a tremendous level of support in terms of preparation, distribution and raising public awareness about the art and the issue. In this way, the Prix Pictet is absolutely unique in the world of photography.”
Kander and Kashi recently joined Benoit Aquin and Munem Wasif for the first time for The Prix Pictet Laureates, a one-off show to mark the 25th anniversary of the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland, which opened on 18 June 2010.
Artists are nominated for the Prix Pictet by a global network of nominators, which has been much strengthened for the third cycle of the prize. The group now includes over 130 leading curators, critics and journalists, including representatives from Tate Modern (UK), Istanbul Contemporary (Turkey), Centre for Contemporary Photography (Australia), Foto Arte Brasilia (Brazil), Photo Festival of Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Les Temps (Switzerland), Jeune Afrique, Winterthur Museum of Photography (Switzerland), Academy of Fine Arts (Poland), Reuters News Agency, Aperture Foundation (USA), FotoSeptiembre (USA), George Eastman House (USA), The Globe and Mail (Canada), Beirut Art Center (Lebanon), and the Baibakova Art Projects (Russia).
http://prixpictet.com
