LONDON.- Prix Pictet announced Prix Pictet: A Lens on Sustainability, a podcast season of six 30-minute episodes where global thinkers, curators, opinion formers and photographers discuss the intersection of photography and sustainability. Produced in association with Editorial Intelligence, each episode centres on an individual theme and incorporates interviews and lively discussions. Contributors include Prix Pictet photographers Daniel Beltrá, Joana Choumali, Richard Mosse as well as guest speakers Sebastião Salgado, Hans Urich Obrist, Hannah Rothschild, Esther Freud, Ekow Eshun, philosophers A.C.Grayling and Roman Krznaric, plus the distinguished journalist Sarah Sands and curators from the New York Public Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Ashmolean Museum.

The series launches with ‘Fire’, the theme of the ninth Prix Pictet announced today. In this episode, the pioneering Brazilian social documentary photographer Sebastião Salgado, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, discusses with Prix Pictet chairman Stephen Barber his new seven-year project photographing the Amazon, his terrifying encounters photographing 600 burning oil wells in Kuwait set on fire by Saddam Hussein, reforesting over 17,000 acres of Brazil by planting 2.8-million trees, and his thoughts on the role of photography in the climate change crisis. The ‘Fire’ podcast also includes contributions from A. C. Grayling and Prix Pictet photographers Richard Mosse and Daniel Beltrá.

The remaining five episodes will be released over the next five weeks with an accompanying e-book of which can be downloaded from www.prixpictet.com/podcast

The Prix Pictet was founded by the Pictet Group in 2008. Today the award is recognised as the world’s leading prize for photography. On an approximately 18-month cycle each theme aims to provoke discussion and debate on issues of sustainability. The prize of 100,000 Swiss francs (£85,000) is awarded for a body of work that addresses most powerfully the theme of the award. The shortlist of photographers for ‘Fire’ will be announced at a special event at Les Rencontres d’Arles in July 2021. A major exhibition of work by the shortlisted photographers will be held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in December 2021, where the winner of the 100,000 Swiss francs (£85,000) prize will be announced at an awards ceremony.

Prix Pictet: A Lens on Sustainability
The main presenter of the programme is Rosario Lebrija Rassvetaieff with additional interviews by Stephen Barber, Chairman, Prix Pictet, and the writer Julia Hobsbawm.

Episode 1: Fire – new theme of the ninth Prix Pictet
Date of Release – 14 November 2020
After the plague comes fire. In its untamed form, fire wreaks terrible destruction, yet it has long been associated to renewal and rebirth. Over the last years, we have seen an outbreak of catastrophic fires across the world. It is our inability to control this most capricious of the elements that underlines our failure, despite all our sophistication, to maintain a proper balance and understanding of the planet’s elemental powers.

• Photographer: Sebastião Salgado
• Interview: AC Grayling (Author, Professor and Philosopher)
• Photographer: Daniel Beltra (photographer)
• Photographer: Richard Mosse (photographer)

Episode 2: Plant-Based World
Date of Release – 21 November 2020
How does the natural world influence the way we look at the broader question of sustainability? In this episode we explore our symbiotic relationship with the plant-based world through photography, industrial production, and of course, the mighty tree.




• Maker: Janelle Lynch (Photographer) and Awoiska van der Molen (Photographer)
• Interview: Joshua Chuang (Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Associate Director for Arts, Prints and Photographs NY Public Library)
• Discussion: Hans Ulrich Obrist (Director of the Serpentine Galleries)

Episode 3: The City
Date of Release – 28 November 2020
Are cities sustainable? As many look beyond the city as they look beyond the pandemic, this episode takes a passionate look at cities and space, and the changing role everything from finance to culture is going to play in some of the most iconic cities in the world including Tokyo, Berlin, New York and London.

• Maker: Robin Rhode (Photographer)
• Interview: Dr. Lena Fritsch (Curator at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
• Panel: Joy Lo Dico (FT columnist), Elizabeth Dillon (Head of the US Office, Pictet Asset Management), Jez Coulson (Photographer)

Episode 4: Mortality
Date of Release – 5 December 2020
Can photography help process mortality? Throughout history, humans have been obsessed with eternal life. But death is inevitable, a natural part of life. Photography helps us process our own mortality and remember those who are gone. It reminds us of the natural cycles of life, which we must sustain for future generations.

• Maker: Joana Choumali (Photographer)
• Interview: Esther Freud (Author) visits her fathers grave at Highgate Cementary
• Panel: Professor Iain Hutchison (Founder, The Facial Surgery Research Foundation) and Kirsty Lang (Chair of The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Arts and board member, The British Council)

Episode 5: Tradition
Date of Release – 12 December 2020
Tradition in both rural and urban communities, as well as wider human traditions. How do these last? Why and how are these lost? How does photography capture all of this?

• Maker: Rena Effendi (Photographer)
• Interview: Sarah Sands (former Editor of the London Evening Standard and editor of the Today Programme on BCC Radio 4), Stephen Barber (Chair of the Prix Pictet)
• Panel: Roman Krznaric (Author) and Ekow Eshun (Journalist and Author)

Episode 6: Family
Date of Release – 19 December 2020
As we attach more and more value to independent success and less to the family, are we losing accountability for our actions to the planet? The family as a unit both biological and culturally is changing and some say facing a crisis. How has art and photography represented these tribes/communities over history and what can we learn from them?

• Maker: Alexia Webster (Photographer)
• Interview: Dina de Angelo (Senior Private Banker at Pictet Wealth Management) and Stephen Barber (Chair of Prix Pictet)
• Discussion: Hannah Rothschild CBE (author and philanthropist) and Luke Syson (Curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum)