piclet.org Prize for Contemporary Photography

We call for entries to the piclet.org Prize for Contemporary African Photography (POCAP) !

- The 5 finalists will be presented during Art Basel 43 in public projections.
- A special publication of the winning portfolios will accompany the projections.
- The finalists will be considered for an editorial feature in European Photography.
- The winner will be included in the piclet.org artist directory.

The call is open from noon, 28 April to noon, 28 May, 2012.

Jury POPCAP‘12

Akinbode Akinbiyi, Artist, Berlin, Germany
Akinbode Akinbiyi was born of Nigerian parents in Oxford, England, in 1946. Today he lives in Berlin, Germany. His school and university experiences reach from Nigeria to England and Germany. He took his B.A. Degree in English at Ibadan University, Nigeria. Akinbode has been working as a freelance photographer since 1977. Akinbode Akinbiyi's main photographic interest focuses on large, sprawling mega cities. He is working on the four biggest cities on the African continent - Lagos, Cairo, Kinshasa and Johannesburg -, aiming at spreading these topics through serious art books and exhibitions. He also works as a curator and leader of photographic workshops.

Tobia Bezzola, Curator, Zurich, Switzerland
The 1961 born Swiss curator and writer Tobia Bezzola studied philosophy and art history. He received his PhD on German Idealism from the University of Zurich 1993. From 1991-1993 he was assistant professor at the university of Zurich. Since 1995 Bezzola works as curator for Kunsthaus Zurich and is currently senior curator and head of exhibitions.

Benjamin Füglister, Artist, Berlin, Germany
Berlin based artist Benjamin Füglister was born in 1978 in Zurich, Switzerland. Füglisters work is mainly focused on the interchange between the photographic media and modern society. He questions social conventions and their visual transformation. His main attention covers photography as an interface to observe and as a medium to visualize change in the idea of men. In 2009 he founded piclet.org the platform for hand-picked photographers‘ portfolios to counteract the leveling of photography through democratic processes in the internet.

Peter Herrmann, Gallery owner, Berlin, Germany
Peter Herrmann works in the field of African Art since 1985 and runs his Berlin based gallery since 1989. He spent 10 years in several countries on the African continent and works as consultant for African art and culture in political and economical affairs. Peter Herrmann is in demand for cultural exchange matters for many years. As curator he organized more than 300 exhibitions and produced several film and photography projects.

Michket Krifa, Curator, Paris, France
Michket Krifa is an independant curator, author and consultant for visual arts in the Middle East and Africa. She lives and works in Paris and has since 2009 been the artistic director of the 8th and 9th Bamako Encounters, African Biennial of Photography. Michket Krifa collaborates with many institutions and organized events around the Middle East and African photography in Europe and abroad. She has written many essays and articles on photography and has edited books and catalogues.

Lesley A. Martin, Publisher, New York, USA
Lesley A. Martin is Publisher of the Aperture Foundation's book program and Director of Content for the foundation as a whole. Her writing on photography has been published in Aperture, American Photo, and DoubleTake, among other publications, and she has edited over sixty-five books of photography. In 2008, she was named one of the fifteen most influential people in photobook publishing by PDN and was one of the inaugural curators for the New York Photo Festival along with Martin Parr, Tim Barber, and Kathy Ryan. Martin teaches a course titled "What Makes a Photobook Work" at the International Center for Photography and is an adjunct professor at the School of Visual Arts, New York

Andreas Müller-Pohle, Artist and Publisher, Berlin, Germany
Andreas Müller-Pohle is a Berlin-based media artist and the publisher and editor of European Photography, the international art magazine for contemporary photography and new media. He studied Economics and Communications at the University of Hannover and the University of Göttingen. In 1986 he published Vilém Flusser‘s Die Schrift - Hat Schreiben Zukunft? ("Does Writing Have a Future?") as the first electronic book on diskette. In 2001 he was awarded the European Photography Prize of the Reind M. De Vries Foundation. From 1997 to 2004 he was visiting professor at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium. Müller-Pohle has exhibited and worked on photography and media projects in Europe, America and Asia, the most recent being "The Danube River Project" and "Hong Kong Waters".

Jürg Schneider, Historian, Basel, Switzerland
Jürg Schneider, is a researcher affiliated with the University of Basel. He has recently submitted and defended his doctoral thesis "Exploring the Atlantic Visualscape. Eine Geschichte der Fotografie in West und Zentralafrika, 1840-1890", which will be published in a revised version soon. His writing on historical and contemporary African photography and photography in Africa appears in various journals and books. He is co-founder of www.africaphotography.org, a website that is dedicated to all African photographers who since the 19th century have profoundly contributed to the visual creation of the continent, as well as to all who are interested in the history of African photography.

Laura Sérani, Curator, Paris, France
Laura Serani studied modern Literature, History and Philosophy in Rome and in Paris, where she is based. Curator of exhibitions, festivals, editorial and audio-visual projects, she is currently the Artistic Director of the Rencontres de Bamako, the African Photography Biennial, in Mali. She was "Déléguée Artistique"for "Le Mois de la Photo"à Paris 2008, and in 2007 and 2008, Director of the SiFest in Italy. Director of the FNAC Collection and of the FNAC Photo Galleries worldwide. She collaborates with many cultural institutions and festivals worldwide and has been involved in several juries including World Press Photo, New York Photo Awards and Prix Niépce.