Deana Lawson Won the 2022 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Award 

In a special ceremony at the Photographers' Gallery,  held on May 12, 2022, in London, Deana Lawson, the American photographer, was announced as the winner of Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize. The prize is among the most prestigious annual photography awards and has a value of £30,000. Each year, regardless of nationality, a photographer who has had the most and best activity and collaboration with the European photography community, either in running exhibitions or in publication, is presented with the award.  

The award was first given by the Photographers' Gallery in 1996; but since 2005, Deutsche Börse has been the financial sponsor of the event. This photography foundation, which officially started its activity in 2015, arranges the ceremony in cooperation with the Photographers' Gallery in London, with the new title "Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize".  

The workflow of this photography contest starts with a large group of one hundred internationally well-known photography experts who select the artists; among them, the jury board then nominate four artists for the award.  

Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2022 jury board members include Yto Barrada, French-Moroccan photographer; Jessica Simpson, Editorial Director of the New York Times; Yasufumi Nakamori, Senior Curator International Art (Photography) at Tate Modern; Anne-Marie Beckmann, Director of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation; Brett Rogers, Director of Photographers' Gallery in London.  

Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2022 nominees are Deana Lawson; Gilles Peres, French photographer; Jo Ractliffe, African photographer, and Anastasia Sanoylova, Russian photographer. Among these, Deana Lawson was announced as the winner. The other finalists each received a monetary award of £5,000 which is increased by £2,000 compared to the previous year.  

Deana Lawson (b. 1979, New York) was shortlisted for her exhibition "Centropy" which attracted the attention of the jury. The show was held from June 9 to October 11, 2020, in Kunsthalle, Basel, and received the Hugo Boss Prize 2020. This was an exhibition of mostly large-scale photographs with mirror frames next to holograms, 16mm projections, and smaller images printed on mirrors or on rock crystals. She has depicted the lives of black people in domestic settings and next to decorative and symbolic objects to which there is a religious aspect. In fact, by combining documentary, family, and portrait photographs, Lawson has created scenes to describe black people's lived experiences with imaginary narratives. The title of this show is derived from a scientific term – entropy – related to thermodynamics, which explains how the electrification of material can lead to restoring order and structure. In Lawson's photographs, characters are rendered unutterably majestic as if they have full control over the world in which they are photographed.  

Source: 

• www.theartnewspaper.com 
• www.nytimes.com 

Cover photo: www.vogue.com/article/deana-lawson 
Slider photo: Deana Lawson at her studio in New York City. Credit: Lyle Ashton Harris for The New York Times