Abstract

The Prix Pictet is a photography prize focussing on sustainability. Anthropocentric in its world-view, the prize was endorsed and supported by Kofi Annan, who until 2006 was the Secretary-General of the United Nations. This article argues three points. Firstly, that the Prix Pictet’s model of sustainability is anthropocentric and produces a framework in which myriad inequalities in human relationships become representable. The prize as a symptom of the contradictions created through neoliberalism will be analysed, particularly as the prize celebrates the commodification of art whilst also enabling the articulation of concern about people and environment. This produces the second argument, where the prize is seen as symptomatic of a neoliberal economy that both offers opportunities for artists to express concern about social, economic and environmental inequalities, whilst also ‘greenwashing’ sustainable investments. Thirdly, I will argue that, photography’s ambiguity occasionally escapes the anthropocentric framework, leading to other possible interpretations. The Prix Pictet, then, mainly represents a human-centric view, and this is reproduced at the expense of nature-human-technology frameworks. However, close readings of some of the shortlisted projects see eco-centric and posthuman sensibilities emerging.

摘要

该大奖赛百达是一个关注可持续性的摄影奖。该奖项的世界观以人类为中心，得到了科菲·安南的认可和支持，科菲·安南在 2006 年之前一直担任联合国秘书长。本文论证三点。首先，Prix Pictet 的可持续性模型是以人类为中心的，并产生了一个框架，在该框架中，人际关系中的无数不平等现象变得可以表现出来。该奖项作为新自由主义所造成的矛盾的一种表现将予以分析，特别是该奖项在庆祝艺术商品化的同时，也能够表达对人和环境的关注。这产生了第二个论点，该奖项被视为新自由主义经济的征兆，这两者都为艺术家表达对社会的关注提供了机会，经济和环境不平等，同时也“漂绿”可持续投资。第三，我会争辩说，摄影的模糊性偶尔会脱离以人类为中心的框架，导致其他可能的解释。这那么，Prix​​ Pictet主要代表了一种以人为中心的观点，这是以牺牲自然-人类-技术框架为代价的。然而，仔细阅读一些入围项目，发现以生态为中心和后人类的敏感性正在出现。