Culture Desk
Shahidul Alam, internationally renowned Bangladeshi photographer, activist and founder of Drik and Pathshala South Asian Media Institute has been selected as one of the 12 photographers shortlisted for the eighth cycle of the Prix Pictet, the global award in photography and sustainability. The award will be presented to the winner on 13 November 2019, with the opening of an exhibition of works by the photographers at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, UK.
The theme for this year’s Prix Pictet is Hope, offering a wide range of creative possibilities and a strong set of connections to the Prix Pictet’s overriding theme of sustainability. Shahidul has been shortlisted for his series ‘Still She Smiles, 2014’. The other shortlisted photographers are Joana Choumali (C�te d’Ivoire), Margaret Courtney-Clarke (Namibia), Rena Effendi (Azerbaijan), Lucas Foglia (United States), Janelle Lynch (United States), Ross McDonnell (Ireland), Gideon Mendel (South Africa), Ivor Prickett (Ireland), Robin Rhode (South Africa), Awoiska van der Molen (Netherlands) and Alexia Webster (South Africa).
Founded in 2008 by the Pictet Group, the Prix Pictet has become the world’s leading award for photography and sustainability. To date there have been seven cycles of the award each of which has highlighted a particular facet of sustainability. The seven themes are: Water, Earth, Growth, Power, Consumption, Disorder and Space. Since 2008 the seven cycles of the Prix Pictet have been shown in exhibitions in many major cities of the world with visitor numbers of over 550,000.
