Join Prix Pictet Director Michael Benson to selected works of "Human"
#1 RAGNAR AXELSSON
The exhibition is called Human. It's the 10th cycle of the Prix Pictet. It features 12 artists through a shortlisting process following a long period of nomination and judging. They are extraordinary visual storytellers.
Out of those 12 artists, let me first mention Ragnar Axelsson, who has made it his mission to camp out on the ice, in the Arctic region, and document the lives of the indigenous people who live there. Ragnar spent months camped out on the ice. He told me that quite often, his hands were too cold to actually work the cameras. But he made some extraordinary photographs, which have a kind of mystical quality. Part of that mysticism is actually the melting of the ice and the steam that is rising from the ice. But, nonetheless, his work is lyrical and magical.
#2 YAEL MARTÍNEZ
The other artist I'd like to focus on is YAEL MARTÍNEZ. He made a series of work to celebrate the lives of people he lost, and to celebrate the magical qualities in humanity. What he did is he pierced little holes into the photographs he'd taken, and then he projected light through them. In this way, he kind of creates an ethereal, spirit of hopefulness, in his view. And mine, too. He made a really magical series of images, of people he was close to, but also people who had some degree of hope and lyricism about them.
#3 GAURI GILL
Gauri Gill, the laureate, the person who won the Prix Pictet. Her series has taken place over many years. She’s made it in a remote part of India, living amongst the community. The works she's made are very, very fine black-and-white photographs. She has a very nice phrase for that. She says they give up their secrets slowly. So with her images, you need to spend time. You need to look, you need to study what's in them. But they have a great deal of narrative power.