The award, inaugurated in 2015 in collaboration with Camera – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, seeks to support the new generation of artists working with photography.
This initiative is a response to the heterogeneous use of photography in contemporary art, and stems from a desire to identify new artistic vocabularies that go beyond the traditional definition of the photographic medium – in line with the specific and experimental identity of the fair.
Aimed at exhibiting photographers under 35, the award allows its winner to realise a monographic publication with a prestigious publishing house in the industry. The purpose of the award is to give space and visibility to this form of artistic expression in the way it’s employed by emerging talent.
The jury, composed of Tobia Bezzola (director, Museum Folkwang, Essen), Reinhard Braun (director, Camera Austria, Graz), Francesco Zanot (curator, Camera – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, Torino) and Giovanna Silva (editor, Humboldt Books, Milano), has provided the following motivation:
“Joanna Piotrowska’s work places itself firmly in the tradition of photography – her prints are analogue, her shots faithful to what is seen in the final pieces – offering an unprecedented combination of the representation of reality and of mise en scène. The main subject of her images is invisible, residing in the tension that is formed between different individuals and the various elements that re-enter into her frames. Reality and fiction, visible and invisible: Piotrowska’s research proceeds by opposition, brings into question every certainty, eschews the comfort of any level of security, leaving the viewer (like the subjects) in a constant state of suspension. Even science (anthropology, psychology, physiology…), which returns as one of the privileged means of her process, does not provide any relief. Confronting Piotrowska’s images, we feel constantly investigated and hesitant. In this way, they constitute a mirror of contemporary society that, on this occasion, we are happy to honour and bring to prominence in the public eye.”
The 2015 Reda Prize was awarded to Calla Henkel (b. 1978, Boston, MA) and Max Pitegoff (b. 1988, Minneapolis, MN) with the work Times, Berlin, Spring (2013), presented by Isabella Bortolozzi gallery, Berlin, in the Main Section. Their book Berlin, Zürich, Zürich, Berlin, Berlin, Berlin, Berlin, London, published by Humboldt Books, will be presented at Artissima Book Corner by Giovanna Silva (editor) and Francesco Zanot (curator, CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia) on Sunday, 6 November, at 2.00 pm.
Jury Reda Prize
Tobia Bezzola, director, Museum Folkwang, Essen
Reinhard Braun, director, Camera Austria, Graz
Francesco Zanot, curator, Camera – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, Torino
Giovanna Silva, editor, Humboldt Books, Milano
