For each cycle, the award focuses on a different theme that promotes discussion and debate on issues of sustainability. A network of over 350 nominators, including critics, curators, and other specialists in photography, invites artists from around the world to submit their work. The independent jury creates a shortlist of twelve photographers based on artistic and photographic merit, originality in conception and/or execution, relevance to the current cycle’s theme, ability to address a pressing sustainability challenge, and ensuring their series is a unified and coherent body of work.
The jury then selects the winner from the shortlist and a prize of 100,000 Swiss Francs is awarded for a body of work that speaks most powerfully to the theme.
Prix Pictet 2025 – Storm
The theme for the 2025 prize is 'Storm'. It invites reflections on the growing volatility of our age, forever poised on the brink of the next crisis.
Prix Pictet 2023 – Human
Now in its tenth cycle, 2023's Prix Pictet prize theme is 'Human'. Inviting us to engage deeply with our shared humanity, it sheds light on critical issues affecting out planet and its inhabitants.
Prix Pictet 2021 – Fire
The theme for 2021's prize was 'Fire'. Winner Sally Mann received the prize for her series Blackwater.
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Prix Pictet 2019 – Hope
The theme for the prize in 2019 was 'Hope'. The winner, Ivorian photographer Joana Choumali, received the eighth Prix Pictet for her series Ça va aller (it will be ok).
Perhaps in our ability to carry on in adversity lies hope for us all. Hope that, despite the catastrophic damage that we have visited upon the natural world and upon the lives our most vulnerable citizens, it is not too late to reverse the damage that we have done.
You can explore the 'Hope' exhibition online on the Prix Pictet website.
Prix Pictet 2017 – Space
The theme for the 2017 cycle was 'Space'. Of the twelve photographers shortlisted, Richard Mosse was announced as the winner of the prize for his series Heat Maps.