For a few days barricades on Hrushevskoho street were burning, Kiev, Ukraine, Jan. 23, 2014.
For a few days barricades on Hrushevskoho street were burning, Kiev, Ukraine, Jan. 23, 2014. © Maxim Dondyuk
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Riot police began to storm Maidan after clashes on Shelkovichna street, Kiev, Ukraine, Feb. 18, 2014. © Maxim Dondyuk
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For a few days barricades on Hrushevskoho street were burning, Kiev, Ukraine, Jan. 23, 2014. © Maxim Dondyuk
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Conservation Rangers work with locals to evacuate the bodies of four Mountain Gorrillas killed in Virunga National Park, Eastern Congo, July 2007. © Brent Stirton
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Michael Oryem, 29, is a recently defected Lord’s Resistance Army fighter whose LRA group was involved in the poaching of Ivory in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Nzara, South Sudan, 17 Nov. 17, 2014. © Brent Stirton
Somali refugees departing Shimbiro Beach to board smugglers’ boats to Yemen, Shimbero, Somalia, April-December 2008.

A Million Shillings- Escape from Somalia

Somali refugees departing Shimbiro Beach to board smugglers’ boats to Yemen, Shimbero, Somalia, April-December 2008.
Omar, refugee smuggler, Bossaso, Somalia, April-December 2008.

A Million Shillings- Escape from Somalia

Omar, refugee smuggler, Bossaso, Somalia, April-December 2008.
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Time After Time: Blow Up No. 2, 2009 © Ori Gersht
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Time After Time: Blow Up No. 8, 2009 © Ori Gersht
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Kalorama, Washington, DC, 2013 © John Gossage
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Rochester, New York © John Gossage
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Untitled, Agbogbloshie Market, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2009-10 © Pieter Hugo
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Aissah Salifu, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2010 © Pieter Hugo
Shirley Armitage, Moorland Village, Somerset, United Kingdom, February 2014

Drowning World

Shirley Armitage, Moorland Village, Somerset, United Kingdom, February 2014
Christa and Salomon Raymond Fils, Decade Village, Haiti, September 2008

Drowning World

Christa and Salomon Raymond Fils, Decade Village, Haiti, September 2008
Still life with mask #140209

Still life with mask

Still life with mask #140209
Still life with shoes #140204

Still life with shoes

Still life with shoes #140204
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Bees of Bees (Detail), 2009 © Matthew Brandt
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Bees of Bees 2 (Detail), 2012 © Matthew Brandt
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Eleven Blowups #1, 2006 © Sophie Ristelhueber
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Eleven Blowups #5, 2006 © Sophie Ristelhueber
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Intoxication of Oblivion, 2012 © Ilit Azoulay
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Howling for Beuys, 2014 © Ilit Azoulay
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From the New World, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei and etc., 2014 © Yongliang Yang
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From the New World (detail), Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei and etc., 2014 © Yongliang Yang

On Friday, the Pictet Group announced the shortlist for the sixth cycle of the Prix Pictet Award, a juried international competition of photography that confronts issues facing the environment and sustainability. This cycle’s theme was disorder, “The eternal struggle between order and chaos,” Chairman Stephen Barber said. “Throughout the world there are examples of attempts to impose order without a clear understanding of the long-term consequences of doing so. With each passing day the illusion of order is shattered in a thousand different ways.”

The 12 photographers listed below, with projects covering popular uprisings in Ukraine, poaching in Congo, the Mediterranean refugee crisis, the disappearance of honey bees, as well as more conceptual takes on the theme, will have their work on view at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris from Nov. 12, 2015, at which point the winner will be announced. The exhibition will tour through a dozen countries from January 2016 and will be published in book form with essays by leading writers on the theme.

The winner will come away with a pretty staggering prize of 100,000 Swiss Francs, or roughly $105,000 USD, which should reasonably allot a photographer the leeway to spend at least a year focusing on personal projects.

Links to shortlists photographers:

Ilit Azoulay, born Jaffa 1972, lives and works Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel

Valérie Belin, born Boulogne-Billancourt 1964, lives and works Paris, France

Matthew Brandt, born Los Angeles 1982, lives and works Los Angeles, USA

Maxim Dondyuk, born Polyan’ 1983, lives and works Nova Kabovka, Ukraine

Alixandra Fazzina, born London 1974, lives and works London, UK

Ori Gersht, born Tel Aviv 1967, lives and works London, UK

John Gossage, born New York 1946, lives and works Washington DC, USA

Pieter Hugo, born Johannesburg 1976, lives and works Cape Town, South Africa

Gideon Mendel, born Johannesburg 1959, lives and works London, UK

Sophie Ristelhueber, born Paris 1949, lives and works Paris, France

Brent Stirton, born Durban 1969, lives and works New York, USA

Yang Yongliang, born Shanghai 1980, lives and works Shanghai, China