Eye of the storm

The 11th Prix Pictet gathers 12 photographers whose powerful visions confront the turbulence of our times, revealing beauty, fragility and the forces reshaping the planet

- Peter Dench

Founded in 2008 by the Geneva-based Pictet Group, the Prix Pictet champions photographers whose work confronts the planet's most urgent sustainability challenges. Each cycle centres on a single theme – this year, Storm reflects the turbulence of our age: environmental collapse, political upheaval, economic instability and social unrest.

A global network of around 350 nominators put forward artists whose work was reviewed by an independent jury chaired by climate scientist Sir David King. From hundreds of submissions the jury selected 12 photographers exploring the raw power and consequences of storms, both literal and metaphorical.

Winning work

Chosen from this exceptional field, Alfredo Jaar impressed the jury with The End, a body of work that documents the ecological crisis engulfing Utah's Great Salt Lake, described by scientists as an 'environmental nuclear bomb'. Once a keystone ecosystem of the western hemisphere, the lake has lost 73% of its water and 60% of its surface area since the mid 19th century, exposing toxic dust and driving salinity to dangerous levels. Its collapse threatens public health, regional rainfall patterns and an economy worth $2.5 billion annually, while endangering vital wetlands that sustain millions of migratory birds. Without a dramatic increase in water flow, the Great Salt Lake faces the prospect of vanishing altogether, a disaster of incalculable magnitude.

Through striking, often otherworldly images, The End captures the lake's exposed salt flats, shrinking waters, and stark landscapes, offering viewers both an aesthetic experience and intimate access to a vanishing ecosystem.

Jurors' verdict