Semira Sleeping in Kat’s House, Eastside, Detroit 2012, is from Dave Jordano’s prize-winning photo series about his hometown.Dave Jordano
Chicago-based documentary photographer Dave Jordano is the winner of the $50,000 Aimia/AGO Photography Prize for 2015. Jordano, 67, received the international honour Tuesday evening at a ceremony at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. He prevailed over three other finalists – Canadian Owen Kydd and Hito Steyerl and Annette Kelm, both from Germany – named in late June by an international three-person jury.
Honouring excellence in contemporary photography and photo-based art, the Aimia/AGO is believed to be the only major international art prize selected by public vote. This year, close to 20,000 people cast ballots online or at the AGO, where work by Jordano and his three fellow finalists have been exhibited since mid-September. (The exhibition continues through Jan. 3, 2016.)
Jordano's AGO showcase consists of 11 colour photographs from a series he started in 2010 recording the lives, lifestyles and habitats of his hometown of Detroit. A Chicago resident since 1977, Jordano was a successful commercial photographer until 2001, when he embarked on an encyclopedic art project shooting the bridges of Chicago.
Photographs from his Detroit series, Detroit – Unbroken Down, were published in book form this fall.
Besides the cash prize, Jordano gets a fully funded six-week residency at institutions across Canada. Each of the runners-up receives the residency, too, plus $5,000 to support their art.
The Aimia/AGO prize started in 2008, called at that time the Grange Prize, after the AGO's original home. The award's thrust has always been international, but until 2012 finalists were split between two photographers from Canada and two from a "partner" country such as China, Mexico and the United States. Starting in 2013, it was decided the prize would have a long list open to candidates from anywhere in the world; from this, a short list of four would be chosen, including, as a requirement, one Canadian. This year's long list, announced in April, totalled 27 artists. Three Canadians have won first place since the award's inception.