29 July 2026

Storm

The 11th Prix Pictet award exhibition centers sustainability at
The Museum of Contemporary Photography at
Columbia College Chicago

by Kate Mothes

Recently, an EF3 tornado ripped through my neighboring town, decimating dozens of houses. It dropped in just a matter of minutes; there was hardly any warning. Almost miraculously, no one was killed, but the damage is intense. We say “nature’s fury,” except that nature doesn’t care. It is unfeeling, travels where it will with impunity, even invisibly possessing an almost unbelievable power. We’re quick to anthropomorphize it, to say it is “without mercy,” and photographer Camille Seaman evokes a particularly palpable image of a farm near Lodgepole, Nebraska, beneath a twisting black mesocyclone she calls a “A Lovely Monster.” It’s one image from her series The Big Cloud, which was among series by a total of 12 contemporary photographers shortlisted for the 11th Prix Pictet Award.

The prestigious prize, which was founded in 2008, centers photography and sustainability as a way to highlight remarkable work being made around the world and the urgent issues we face amid the climate crisis. This edition’s theme, Storm, taps into myriad interpretations of elemental forces and unrest. Balazs Gardi, for example, captures the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, while Alfredo Jaar’s The End series — which won the top award — focuses on the tensions and tides, so to speak, of the Great Salt Lake, where excessive water extraction is leading to what scientists have coined an “environmental nuclear bomb.”

“Whether it be the devastation of climate disasters or tensions within divided societies, the images featured in Storm reveal not only disruption, but also the generative forces within it—the possibility of transformation and hope that emerges in its wake,” says a statement. In addition to Seaman, the shortlist this year includes Takashi Arai, Marina Caneve, Tom Fecht, Balazs Gardi, Roberto Huarcaya, Alfredo Jaar, Belal Khaled, Hannah Modigh, Baudouin Mouanda, Laetitia Vançon, and Patrizia Zelano. See more of the artists’ work on the Prix Pictet website, and see the exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago through August 22.

prixpictet-3 — Alfredo Jarr, *The End (GSL_a)*, 2025. From the series *The End*, 2025. Image courtesy of the artist

prixpictet-5 — Baudouin Mouanda, *Monique veille sur son fils de peur qu’il ne se noie (Monique Watches Over Her Son for Fear That He Will Drown)*, 2020. From the series *Ciel de saison (Seasonal Sky)*, 2020. Image courtesy of the artist

prixpictet-6 — Camille Seaman, *The Lovely Monster over the Farm, 19.15 CST, Lodgepole, Nebraska, 22 June 2012*, 2012. From the series *The Big Cloud*, 2008–14. Image courtesy of the artist

prixpictet-4 — Hannah Modigh, *Boy and Cherry Picker Truck*, 2012. From the series *Hurricane Season*, 2012. Image courtesy of the artist

1:46 PM, January 6, 2021, Washington, D.C. — Balazs Gardi, *1.46 pm, January 6, 2021, Washington, D.C.*, 2021. From the series *The Storm*, 2020–21. Image courtesy of the artist

prixpictet-7 — Laetitia Vançon, *Keep Dancing to the Beat of Your Heart*, 2022. From the series *Tribute to Odesa*, 2022. Image courtesy of the artist

prixpictet-8 — Patrizia Zelano, *Acqua Alta a Venezia #24*, 2019. From the series *Acqua Alta a Venezia (High Water in Venice)*, 2019. Image courtesy of the artist and Zamagni Galleria d'Arte, Rimini

8804 ist31 024 — Marina Caneve, *Val di Zoldo: Destruction #02*, 2018. From the series *Are They Rocks or Clouds?*, 2015–19. Image courtesy of the artist

All images © the artists, courtesy of Prix Pictet and the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago.

Storm

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