Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2006

Pure life, authentic, unvarnished, and tough: Robert Adams, Yto Barrada, Phil Collins and Alec Soth (US) are all unique documenters of modern reality who focus on different topics. While Adams has been recording the consequences of industrialization for the landscapes of the American west with his ruthless, personal gaze for more than forty years, Soth's photographs investigate the people and places of Mississippi. He recorded his experiences in a poetic-photographic travel report. Collins looks at love and death, war and loss, examining the most extreme life situations and experiences, yet his seemingly-playful scenarios are full of humor and energy. And Barrada uses powerful images to show refugees from Africa, their attempts to leave their country, and their unfulfilled hopes, at the straits of Gibraltar, one of the main routes of illegal immigration to Europe. Every year, The Photographers’ Gallery in London awards the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize to an international contemporary photographer who has made a major contribution to photography over the previous year, whether in the form of an exhibition or a publication. Photography experts from all over Europe nominate photographers for this prize, and four of the nominees are shortlisted. The Photographers' Gallery has been awarding this prize, which gives insights into current trends in international photography, since 1996. The Deutsche Börse Group has been the title sponsor of this award since 2005.

The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2006 was awarded in London on 22 March. Robert Adams was presented with this major prize for contemporary photography. The photographer, who is aged 70, donated the prize money of £30,000 to the organization Human Rights Watch. The other shortlisted photographers each received £3,000.