US photographer Jim Goldberg and Argentine born, Alejandro Chaskielberg have secured the top awards for two of this years most prestigious annual photography prizes.
Goldberg’s photos for the Deutche Borse prize document displaced refugees and immigrants fleeing war torn countries to safe havens in Europe has won him the £30,000 award. The other shortlisted photographers were Thomas Demand, Roe Ethridge and Elad Lassry they each received £3,000.”The jury felt that any one of the four nominees could have been the winner,” said Brett Rogers of the Photographers’ Gallery. Open See won the prize, he continued, because of its “timely and inventive approach to documentary practice.”All the shortlisted works are on show at the Photographers’ Gallery which is temporarerly held in Ambika P3 art space near Regent’s Park at Baker Street in London until 1 May.
Alejandro Chaskielberg walked away with the Sony world photographer of the year award.The 34-year-old won the L’Iris D’Or for his photos of a community of islanders living on the Parana River Delta in his native Argentina. Chaskielberg lived among the tribes for two years to document their lives for his series of intimate pictures.
He was presented with the $25,000 (£15,100) prize at a London awards ceremony on Wednesday.”This year’s panel of judges found no great difficulty in agreeing to honour the powerful work of Alejandro Chaskielberg’s series High Tide,” said Francis Hodgson, chairman of the honorary judging committee. “These carefully directed pictures tell solid truths – about toil and communality and marginal economic survival – in a splendidly allusive way.”
The Open photographer of the year title was awarded to Chan Kwok Hung for his dramatic image, Buffalo Race.
The 37-year from Hong Kong purchased his first SLR camera in 2006 and taught himself basic photography skills using books and the internet. American photographer Bruce Davidson also collected the award for outstanding contribution to photography. The 77-year-old’s past work has included following a Brooklyn gang in the 1950s and chronicling the civil rights movement in the early 1960s.
The other awards presented included the professional category winners, covering current affairs, travel and fine art portraiture. Over 105,000 images were entered from 162 countries making this year by far the most the most popular ever.