Ed Kashi

With the impending Ed Kashi Prix Pictet commission coming up next week at the gallery I am looking forward to the event on Wednesday evening. He will be in conversation with Francis Hodgson and Mark Jacobs. I know Francis and love his direct approach to photography and his critique of it. No doubt he will be asking probing questions about Ed Kashi's experiences. Mark Jacobs also has a fluid approach to the artform that so many of us appreciate. There are only 50 places for the event and more than half are already taken. If you want to go please email Pictet at pictet@candlestar.co.uk asap before all the places go. There is also a book priced at only £5 which will be available to buy and get signed on the night.

Here is some info on the commission and the event:

Madagascar - A Land Out of Balance
The Prix Pictet Commission is an invitation for a photographer, chosen from the Prix Pictet shortlist, to create a portfolio of images related to the theme of the award in association with a charity supported by Pictet. For 2009, Pictet chose to work with Azafady, a UK charity and Malagasy-registered NGO that helps the poorest communities in Madagascar develop sustainable ways of living and increase local access to healthcare and education.

American photographer Ed Kashi was awarded the 2009 Commission. The resulting portfolio of photographs, Madagascar - A Land Out of Balance, will be premiered at Diemar/Noble Photography in London from 20 April – 1 May 2010.
Kashi’s pictures chronicle the compromised beauty of this threatened island, described as one of the greatest present-day ecological disasters yet recorded. As the writer Helena Drysdale says in her catalogue essay to accompany the exhibition, these photographs show a deteriorating situation ‘In the south, the failure of the rains has speeded up the desertification. The Masoala Peninsular has become a national park, but this has not prevented the pillaging of the rainforests by illegal loggers – aided by French shippers and the Malagasy government – or the subsistence farmers’ slash and burn. Madagascar’s soil continues to bleed unquenched into the Indian Ocean, and the Great Red Island slowly but inexorably dies.'


The Prix Pictet Secretariat, Candlestar, 8 Hammersmith Broadway, London, W6 7AL
pictet@candlestar.co.uk +44 (0) 20 8741 6025 www.candlestar.co.uk

I look forward to seeing you.