The Photographers’ Gallery, London has awarded Richard Mosse the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014 for his much-feted installation The Enclave, first shown at the 55th Venice Biennale. The work incorporates large-scale photography and multichannel film to powerfully force an analysis of how war is represented.
Mosse’s subject is the devastating human tragedy in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where 5.4 million people have died as a result of the conflict since 1998. Adroitly rendering the theatre of war in psychedelic hues of pink, the project attempts to dismantle the fallibility of documentary photography and in turn usher in new means of communicating this complex and horrific cycle of violence.
Hotly tipped to win, Mosse was presented the £30,000 prize by artist Richard Wentworth during last night’s ceremony at The Photographers’ Gallery. Accepting the award, Mosse stated that he intends to use the prize money to tour The Enclave throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Brett Rogers, director of The Photographers’ Gallery said: “The jury praised the manner in which Mosse combined form and content to draw attention to a conflict, which despite costing the lives of millions of people has largely gone unnoticed by the West. While building upon traditional forms of documentary, the resulting hyper-real images and films open up new possibilities for story-telling and engagement with the subject of contemporary conflict.”
This year’s jury members were curator Kate Bush, artist Jitka Hanzlová, the director of Fotomuseum Winterthur Thomas Seelig, and Anne-Marie Beckmann, curator at Art Collection Deutsche Börse, Germany.
The other shortlisted artists for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014, each awarded £3,000, were Alberto García-Alix, Jochen Lempert and Lorna Simpson.
Now celebrating its tenth year under the sponsorship of Deutsche Börse, the prize is awarded to a photographer of any nationality for their significant contribution to the medium of photography either through an exhibition or publication, in Europe between 1 October 2012 and 30 September 2013.
The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014 runs at The Photographers’ Gallery, London until 22 June. thephotographersgallery.org.uk
More on a-n.co.uk:
Review: The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014
PICTURED: Richard Mosse, The Enclave – Tim Clark opens our regular series on art books with a look at Mosse’s incredible work
