Swiss Photography Prize: Dongkyun Vak's winning exhibition opens

Questioning conventional perspectives and pointing out new paths: The Vontobel Contemporary Photography Prize A New Gaze honors young photographers who fulfill this requirement in surprising ways. The winning exhibition Heatwave, featuring works by this year's prize winner Dongkyun Vak (*1992) from South Korea, will now open in Zurich on May 20. With his project proposal on the theme of »Responsibility − Responsibility in the Anthropocene« he convinced the jury. Vak was able to use the prize money of 20,000 Swiss francs to implement his submission ideas. Interested parties can view the result of his work until July 1.

»In order to fulfill our responsibility towards the environment, innovative technologies and also eco-friendly design, such as electric cars or air purifiers, are increasingly shaping our everyday lives. The invisible force behind these changes is technology, as it seems to be both the cause of and solution to the ecological challenges of the Anthropocene«, Dongkyun Vak comments on his work.

Vontobel awards the A New Gaze prize every two years and focuses on a different continent or region each time; the current focus is on East Asia. The first two editions of the prize, which focused on North America and Africa respectively, were won by Eva O'Leary from the USA and Kelvin Haizel from Ghana.