The four artists shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize2021 are Poulomi Basu, Alejandro Cartagena, Cao Fei and Zineb Sedira.

2021 celebrates the 25th anniversary of this long-standing and prestigious annual prize, which recognises artists and projects deemed to have made the most significant contribution to photography over the previous 12 months.

The 2021 shortlist presents four highly individual artists, whose bold wide-rangingprojects cover geographical territories from Algeria to China and explore issues affecting both the local and the global.

From Poulomi Basu’s uncompromisingly complex depiction of conflict in CentralIndia, Alejandro Cartagena’s scathing critique exploring the repercussions of home ownership and developments in northern Mexico, to Cao Fei’s dystopic multi-media fabrications that consider the enormous impact of technologies on lived experiences and Zineb Sedira’s generous auto-fictive exploration of memory,culture and belonging. All of the nominated projects use photography as a means of challenging political realities to convey subjective truths.

The exhibition of the shortlisted projects, curated by Anna Dannemann, will be on show at The Photographers’ Gallery from 19 March—27 June 2021. The exhibition willalso be presented as part of the international photography triennial RAYFotografieprojekte Frankfurt/RheinMain and will be on display at Deutsche Börse’sheadquarters in Eschborn/Frankfurt from 5 June—12 September 2021.

The winner of the £30,000 prize will be announced at an award ceremony in late Spring 2021. Full details will be announced in January 2021.

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