The competition for this exhibition was initiated last year by the Financial Times and banking house Prix Picted, which has given its name to the competition. The underlying objective was to clarify to the financial and the business world that something is definitely going wrong with our planet earth. In the contest, in which three hundred professional photographers participated, an amount of one hundred thousand Swiss francs (over 68,000 euros) may be won, which indicates that this is a serious contest indeed. This year honorary chairman Kofi Annan presented the prize to photographer Ed Kashi for his photo showing the Chinese family picnicking.

The theme ‘Earth’ does not only refer to our planet and the soil beneath our feet, but also to the markings that man makes in the land: mining, toxic waste, overpopulated cities, extensive dump sites and scorched desert landscapes. These marks may also be scars formed by fire, flooding or famine, or the results of natural disasters: earthquakes, landslides and erupting volcanoes, the migration of displaced persons.

The exhibition comprises mostly photo reportages, so that the photos really tell a story. Photos displayed include work by famous photographers like Nadav Kander, Edward Burtynsky and Andreas Gursky, as well as Sammy Baloji. He is intrigued by the industrial culture of his homeland Katanga (Congo). In his photomontages he combines past and present, thus referring to the still visible and manifest culture of the colonial exploitation of minerals and other raw materials. By merging old black-and-white photos with modern color photos the past becomes topical again. Earlier, Baloji’s work was awarded the Prix Afrique en création (Cultures France) and the Prix pour l’image (Foundation Blachère) at the 2007 Bamako Biennale. (GV)/.