This year’s prize winner Peter Hebeisen, born in Bern in 1956, is a photographer. Hebeisen’s photo series revolve around the theme of the portrait. His photographs are interpretations of what the camera lens captures. It is the sharp vision behind and below the visible surface that allows penetration into the subcutaneous landscape of man, animal, nature.

Of remarkable topicality is the series 20th Century European Battlefields. Peter Hebeisen photographed places in Europe where great warlike battles of the First and Second World Wars and other wars took place. Where miles of nature and cities were devastated and thousands died, there is now a town, a secluded grove or an idyllic beach resort with umbrellas and ice cream stands. Nevertheless, this is war photography that, in a way, portrays the place and its casualties posthumously.

Hebeisen’s latest series of Swiss glaciers What remains is also most impressive. The shooting brings the glacier close to a living being that suffers and dies – a fascinating counterpoint to the magnificent beauty of the mountain world.