This year’s nominees display a wide range of approaches with diverse bodies of work exploring political and personal concerns with identity, surveillance, migration and loss. With works emotionally and visually captivating, it’s no surprise that these four artists were shortlisted for this award.

Here are this year’s nominees:

Laura El-Tantawy has been shortlisted for her self-published photobook, In the Shadow of the Pyramids, which features images spanning from 2005 to 2014.

Although she was born in England, El-Tantawy was also partly brought up in Egypt and Saudi Arabia; she says the project stemmed from a desire to reconnect with a country she no longer knew. El-Tantawy began exploring the essence of Egyptian identity with the hopes that she would eventually come to terms with her own and in doing so created this intimate body of work which was guided by her childhood memories via her own family archive. Overtime the project gained a sense of urgency following the Egyptian Revolution prompted by Mubarak’s resignation in 2011 when he was forced to stand down after a wave of mass protests.

This body of work provides the viewer with an intimate, powerful and somewhat heart-breaking insight into the past and present everyday realities that Egyptians face not knowing what the future holds for their country or for themselves alike.

Erik Kessels has been shortlisted for his project, Unfinished Father, which was exhibited at Fotografia Europea, Italy from 15th May – 31st July in 2015.

In 2014, Kessels’ father suffered a stroke causing his motor skills to dramatically decrease and left him barely able to talk. Prior to this, Kessel’s father was extremely active with many side projects, one of them being the restoration of a little Fiat 500 classic. The images throughout this body of work are essentially Kessels take on the fragmented realities of loss and memory as a result of his father’s devitalising stroke, using his father’s unfinished restoration project of the Fiat 500 to representation of his current condition; ‘like his car, his father will never be complete, but remain unfinished’. Kessels brought pieces of the unfinished car into the exhibition space and presented them alongside photographs of car parts and images that his father had taken concluding this intimate and personal project which many viewers will also relate to.

Trevor Paglen was shortlisted for his project, The Octopus, which was displayed at the Frankfurter Kunstverein museum in Germany from 20th June – 30th August in 2015.

Known for his work tackling mass surveillance, Paglan untiringly collaborated with scientists, amateur astronomers and human rights activists in order to make this project happen. The Octopus explores a collection of what may be seen as sometimes quite touchy topics including data collection, military surveillance, classified drone and satellite activities and the systems of power that affix them together.

Arguably this project started in 2013 when Paglen hired a helicopter to take night-time aerial shots across the US of National Security Agencies that are responsible for all national security apparatus, including the extremely controversial drone programme. Some suggest that Paglen’s earlier work exploring mass surveillance is more visually striking and perhaps even more captivating than his later aerial shots, which are quite repetitive; nevertheless, through his work, Paglen demonstrates that secrets cannot be hidden from sight and that traces and structures will always remain and be a part of the US landscape. Paglen is a significant contribution to current issues dealing with the impact of unseen aspects of technology on our day to day lives.

Tobias Zielony is the fourth and final artist shortlisted for his project, The Citizen, which was exhibited as part of the German Pavilion presentation at the Venice Bienale from 9th May – 22nd November 2015 and is currently on display at the Kow gallery in Berlin until 12th June, 2016.

With most of these images taken in Hamburg and Berlin, Zielony’s lens portrays the lives of African refugee activists living in Europe and the struggles they face on a daily basis. Many escaping the oppression and violence in their home countries arrive in the West in search of security and freedom, only to find themselves living as outsiders in refugee-camps without work permits or legal representation. Zielony candidly documents these African refugees who are on the fringes of society in the most intimate and voyeuristic light, making this body of work all the more ambiguous and captivating in the eyes of the viewer.

The images are presented alongside first person accounts of life as an African refugee living in Europe today, along with interviews and narratives published by Zielony in African newspapers and magazines whilst he was reporting on the refugees’ journeys and experiences.

Works by the nominated artists will be exhibited at The Photographers’ Gallery from 16th April until 26th June 2016 and will later be presented at the Deutsche BÖrse HQ in Frankfurk/Eschborn. A prize of £30,000 will be rewarded to a photographer of any nationality for a specific body of work in exhibition or publication format which is felt to have significantly contributed to photography in Europe between 1st October 2014 and 30th September 2015.

Trevor Paglen was announced the winner of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2016 for his work, The Octopus.

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Written by Sam Powell