Reviews

In the context of the „Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2010“, the Frankfurter Kunstverein will present the four photographers Anna Fox, Zoe Leonard, Sophie Ristelhueber and Donovan Wylie. The „Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2010“ is an international prize for contemporary photography. It is awarded annually by The Photographer’s Gallery in London to an artist of any nationality who has made the most significant contribution (exhibition or publication) to photography in Europe in the previous year. This year’s winner of the £30.000 prize is the french artist Sophie Ristelhueber, nominated for her retrospective at the Jeu de Paume, Paris (2009). The three other finalists have been awarded £3.000 each.

ANNA FOX "Hampshire Village Play" 2003 from the series Back to the Village 1999 - © Anna Fox Courtesy James Hyman Gallery, London

The exhibited works illustrate the diversity of contemporary photography and thus take into account various conceptual approaches and photographic methods. Sophie Ristelhueber (born 1949) has been active as a photographer for 25 years. In the past years she mainly examined the impact of war conflicts on landscape and architecture in Europe and the Middle East. Her photographs act as eloquent evidence of the visible traces of the impact of violence on landscape and humans. In the 1980s, Ristelhueber started photographing the bombed city of Beirut, photographing Iraq in the 1990s and 2000. She also began to document people’s wounds and scars so that they sometimes seem to merge with the pictures of the destroyed landscapes. Her work, subtle and satirical at the same time, also has an oblique, gothic sensibility that reveals the darkness in apparently ordinary situations.

Zoe Leonard (USA, born 1961) is nominated for her retrospective exhibition “Zoe Leonard: Photographs” at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2009). The subject of her photographs is urban landscapes, which can be conceived on the one hand as a sort of personal assessment, while on the other hand, as a commentary on photography itself. For more than 20 years, Zoe Leonard has engaged in highlighting contrasts such as nature and civilisation, the inner and the outer world and gender roles. She is an autodidactic photographer.

DONOVAN WYLIE "Deconstruction of the Maze prison Northern Ireland", 2009 © Donovan Wylie/ Magnum Photos

Donovan Wylie (UK, born 1971) is nominated for his exhibition “MAZE 2007/8” at Belfast Exposed (2009). Having grown up in Belfast, his photography focuses on post-conflict Northern Ireland. Wylie started his career as a photographer at the age of 16. In 1992 he was invited to become a nominee of Magnum Photos and in 1998 he became a full member – the youngest in the history of the agency. Between 2002 and 2003, Wylie was the only photographer granted official and unlimited access to the Maze prison. The photographs are divided into four sections, each depicting a “layer” of the prison: the internal walls, the various modes of fencing, the infamous H-blocks and, finally, the perimeter walls, which give a glimpse of the outside world.

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Further information
Deutsche Börse 2010