The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2023
Try to get to this show to see this year’s nominations,
Until 11 June
The Photographers’ Gallery, London
£8 / £5 concessions
See photographersgallery.co.uk for full opening times
Established in 1996 and organised in partnership with the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation in Frankfurt / Main since 2016, the annual Foundation Prize is worth an astonishing £30,000 to its winner, and £5,000 for each of the other finalists.
Each year, the Prize is designed to reward artists and their projects which are considered to have made the most significant contribution to photography over the previous 12 months. As such, it has become renowned as one of the most important international awards for photographers over its 27-year history.
This year the four shortlisted artists are Bieke Depoorter, Samuel Fosso, Arthur Jafa and Frida Orupabo.
Belgian photographer Depoorter is nominated for her exhibition A Chance Encounter, which was displayed in Berlin last year. She aims to blur the traditional relationship between photographer and subject, exploring the role and responsibilities of the photographer, representations, the impossibility of truth and more. Her exhibition project included two ongoing bodies of work, Michael and Agata, with the former being on display at The Photographers’ Gallery.
Samuel Fosso, born in Cameroon and raised in Nigeria, is nominated for his self-titled exhibition which was displayed in Paris last year. Fosso has dedicated his practice to self-portraits and performative photography since the mid1970s, with his retrospective exhibition tracing his almost 50-year career.
American Arthur Jafa is an artist and filmmaker who is nominated for his exhibition Live Evil, shown in Arles last year. His show was the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of his work to date, drawing on a substantial collection of film and still images.
Finally, Norwegian photographer Frida Orupabo is nominated for her exhibition, ‘I have seen a million pictures of my face and still I have no idea’, which was shown at Winterthur, Switzerland, in 2022. Orupabo uses sculptural collages and digital works to explore race, sexuality and identity.
The winner will be announced on 11 May at a special award ceremony, but it’s worth going to the exhibition even before you know which artist will take home the overall prize, to get a good grounding in what’s popular in contemporary photography.
A programme of talks and events will run during the exhibition – visit www. deutscheboersephotographyfoundation.org/en for more details.