TORONTO, ON - March 04, 2015 /CNW/ - The jury of the Scotiabank Photography Award is proud to announce that the finalists for 2015 are gifted Canadian photographers Rafael Goldchain, Angela Grauerholz and Isabelle Hayeur.

Now in its fifth year, the Scotiabank Photography Award was created to raise the international profile of Canada's leading photographic artists and is Canada's largest annual peer-reviewed celebration of excellence in Canadian contemporary photography. 

"The Scotiabank Photography Award is designed to be an annual search for excellence," said Edward Burtynsky, Chair of the Scotiabank Photography Award jury and internationally renowned Canadian photo artist. "The three artists on the 2015 shortlist each have unique and distinctive bodies of work that show true excellence in Canadian contemporary photography. We look forward to announcing the winner of this year's award on May 6."

The Scotiabank Photography Award was founded by Edward Burtynsky and Jane Nokes, Scotiabank's Director of Arts, Culture, & Heritage and Executive Director of the Scotiabank Photography Award. The Award is designed to provide support to a mid-career artist as he or she reaches for the next level of national and international recognition.

The 2015 Scotiabank Photography Award Shortlist Finalists are:

1. Rafael Goldchain was born in 1953 of Polish-Jewish heritage in Santiago, Chile and was educated in Jerusalem, Israel before moving to Toronto. He photographed in México and Central America in the 1980s and 1990s. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Goldchain moved into the studio to stage a series of self-portraits of himself as his ancestors, many of whom were lost in the Holocaust, or displaced over South and Central America in the early 20th century. Goldchain's life and work are the subject of a documentary film entitled "Beautifully Broken: The Life and Times of Rafael Goldchain."
2. Angela Grauerholz was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1952, and has lived and worked in Montreal since 1976. A graduate of the Kunstschule Alsterdamm, Hamburg, in graphic design, she holds a Master's degree in Fine Arts (photography) from Concordia University, Montreal. In 1980, she was a co-founder of ARTEXTE, centre d'information en art contemporain, still today an important archive for Canadian art. In 2010, the National Gallery of Canada in collaboration with the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (CMCP) mounted a major exhibition of her work.
3. Isabelle Hayeur was born in Montreal in 1969, Isabelle Hayeur is a digital image artist recognized for her large-sized photographic montages, videos, and site-specific installations, in which she highlights urban blights and sprawl, among a number of industrial society's pitfalls. Her works are to be found in some twenty collections, including those of the National Gallery of Canada, the Fonds national d'art contemporain in Paris, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago.

"The Scotiabank Photography Award is the most prestigious award in Canadian contemporary photography. It celebrates the vision of talented Canadian artists who have a unique way of telling a story through the lens of a camera," explained Nokes. "The Scotiabank Photography Award is peer-reviewed at every stage of the nomination and adjudication process, and recognizes contemporary Canadian photographers whose work adds to the richness of communities across the country."

In addition to the Scotiabank Photography Award, Scotiabank supports the Arts in Canadian communities as part of our Bright Future program. The Arts inspire all Canadians to pursue their passions, providing us with new perspectives and experiences that enrich our lives.

The shortlist was selected from a list of nominees from across Canada proposed by an eminent panel of nominators. Nominators include curators, photographers, artists, gallery directors, art writers, professors and critics from across the country. This year, the nominators are:

• Diane Charbonneau, Curator, Modern and Contemporary Decorative Arts and Photography, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec.
• William Ewing, Director of Curatorial Projects, Thames & Hudson, London/New York/Paris/Singapore/Hong Kong/Melbourne.
• Blake Fitzpatrick, Professor, School of Image Arts, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario.
• Ihor Holubizky, Senior Curator, McMaster Museum of Art, Adjunct Professor, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.
• Marie-Josée Jean, Director, VOX, centre de l'image contemporaine, Montreal, Quebec.
• Gemey Kelly, Director/Curator, Owens Art Gallery, Adjunct Professor, Department of Fine Arts, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick.
• Andrea Kunard, Associate Curator, Photographs, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
• Vincent Lavoie, Associate Professor, Art History Department, UQAM, Montreal, Quebec.
• Karen Love, Director of Institutional Gifts, Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG), and independent curator, Vancouver, British Columbia. 
• Mary Reid, Director/Curator, Woodstock Art Gallery, Woodstock, Ontario.
• Ann Thomas, Senior Curator, Photographs Collection, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.

The Scotiabank Photography Award Jury is composed of distinguished ‎members of the Canadian arts community. The three voting members of the Jury are: 

• Robert Bean, Professor, Nova Scotia College of Art & Design University (NSCAD), Artist, Writer and Curator, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
• Catherine Bédard, Deputy Director of the Canadian Cultural Centre, Art Historian, Paris, France.
• Robert Enright, Professor and University Research Chair in Art Theory and Criticism, University of Guelph, Ontario and Senior Contributing Editor Border Crossings Magazine, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The winner of the Scotiabank Photography Award receives a cash prize of $50,000 and a book of their work to be published and distributed worldwide by Steidl of Germany, the renowned art photography publisher. In addition, the winner's art will be the subject of a major solo exhibition at the Ryerson Image Centre, as part of next year's Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. The two shortlisted artists receive cash prizes of $10,000 each.

The 2014 winner Mark Ruwedel will have his Scotiabank Photography Award book launch and exhibition at the Ryerson Image Centre, from April 29 to June 28, 2015. His show, a Primary Exhibition of 2015 Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, will be open to the public free of charge for the month of May.

The 2015 Scotiabank Photography Award winner will be announced on May 6, 2015 at the Ryerson Image Centre. For more information about the prize please visit www.scotiabankphotoaward.com.

About Scotiabank
Scotiabank is Canada's international bank and a leading financial services provider in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and Central America, and parts of Asia. Through Bright Future, our global philanthropic program, Scotiabank and its employees support causes at a grassroots level across six pillars: health, education, social services, arts and culture, environment and sports. Recognized as a leader for charitable donations and philanthropic activities, Scotiabank has contributed on average some $50 million annually over the last five years to community causes around the world.