The winner of the £30,000 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2013 will be announced during a ceremony at the Photographers' Gallery in London on 10 June.
This year marks the 17th edition of the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, one of Europe's most prestigious photography awards. It is presented to "a living photographer, of any nationality, for a specific body of work in an exhibition or publication format, which has significantly contributed to photography in Europe between 1 October 2011 and 30 September 2012."
Four bodies of work have been shortlisted for this year's prize.
Cristina De Middel's work, The Afronauts, is inspired by the Zambian space programme of the 1960s, weaving fact and fiction together into series of images that the Spanish-born photographer self-published.
Mishka Henner shot his series of women on the streets of southern Europe using Google Street View. Many of the women appear to be sex workers waiting for clients on roadsides and in isolated lanes. No Man's Land was exhibited by this British-born photographer last autumn at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, as part of the Fotografia Festival Internazionale di Roma (Rome International Photography Festival).
War Primer 2 is a collaboration between Adam Broomberg, from South Africa, and Olivia Chanarin, from the UK, using Bertold Brecht's War Primer as its basis.
To me, the series of photographs that impress most are those by Chris Killip, a British photographer. Killip's What Happened - Great Britain 1970 - 1990, a series of documentary style black and white images photographed in northern England, was exhibited at LE BAL in Paris last year.
The photographs were shot at a time of economic and social change in communities such as South Shields and Jarrow. They document and depict the forlornness that afflicted people coming to terms with de-industrialisation and urban decay. Youth on a Wall is a particularly powerful yet enigmatic image of a young person on Tyneside, head on knees, in what appears to be an angst-ridden, emotional moment.
The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize exhibition is on display until 30 June 2013 in the John Lyon and Barbara Lloyd Galleries, on the fourth and fifth floors of the Photographer's Gallery.
The gallery is at 16-18 Ramillies Street, just off London's Oxford Street. The Photographers' Gallery is open seven days a week, free to visit and holds regularly changing exhibitions. Additionally, the gallery runs a programme of talks, workshops and events relating to photography.
Until 21 July a series of works by the Finnish photographer Claire Aho will also be on display at the Photographers' Gallery. The photographs, dating from 1950 to 1970, have an aspect of timelessness about them, offering an insight into Aho's strong compositions and the early use of colour photography for commercial purposes and in fashion.
If you're a photography enthusiast then the shop, in the gallery's basement, is worth browsing for its range of photography books and magazines. It also stocks a range of pinhole and Holga cameras, plus prints by some of the biggest names in photography, such as Martin Parr, Nick Knight and Bert Hardy.
The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize exhibition will remain on display at the Photographers' Gallery until 30 June 2013.
