Top image:’They Watch the Moon’, 2010 © Trevor Paglen. Courtesy of the artist.

Since 1996, The Photographers’ Gallery has been awarding living photographers, irrespective of their place of birth, for bodies of work that have contributed significantly to the photographic community and its progression. Deutsche Borse Gröup partnered with the Gallery back in 2005, providing recipients a prize of £30,000.

Laura El-Tantawy, Erik Kessels, Trevor Paglen and Tobias Zielony are part of the shortlist for the 2016 prize, and works by each artist are being shown as part of the parallel exhibition until July 3rd. The winner will be announced on 2nd June.

Tobias Zielony portrays the tumultuous lives of African refugees who have moved and reside in Europe in the search for freedom and security to avoid iterations of oppression from their homes. Instead they find exclusion, existing on the edges of society as outsiders in camps, with no legal representation or eligibility to work.

Secrets are the focus in Trevor Paglen’s work, an understanding that traces are left and structures, although made off-limits, are still visible. Paglen’s photography touches on mass surveillance, data collection, drones, and satellite’s and their power of control.

An unassembled Fiat 500 Topolino becomes a tangible representation of Erik Kessels’ father’s condition, having suffered from a stroke. Photos of his father, along with the car parts, are paired to reflect upon life and ending and their accompanying qualities.

El-Tantawy’s images puts focus on the uprising in Tahrir Square, Cairo, capturing the emotive and violent scenes that encapsulate the nation’s disdain for its current government.

The exhibition runs until 3rd July 2016 at The Photographers’ Gallery, 16-18 Ramillies Street, London, W1F 7LW