From the series We decided to let them say, "we are convinced" twice, 2002 © The Atlas Group/ Courtesy Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London

The winner of the prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2007 has been announced. The Prize of £30,000 has been awarded to Walid Raad for The Atlas Group Project, and is awarded for his significant contribution to the medium of photography in Europe between 1 October 2005 - 30 September 2006.

The Prize exhibition is on show at The Photographers’ Gallery in London until 9 April 2007.

The Atlas Group is a project undertaken by Walid Raad (b. 1967, Lebanon) between 1989 and 2004 to research and document the contemporary history of Lebanon. In it he queries the authenticity of photographic and video documents and invites the viewer to question how history, in particular one marked by the trauma of civil war, can be told and visually represented.

The story told appears to be based on the memories of one person, but it also draws on cultural fantasies constructed from the collective memory.

From the series We decided to let them say, "we are convinced" twice, 2002 © The Atlas Group/ Courtesy Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London

“This year’s shortlist demonstrates the immediacy and power of the photographic image when pushed to its limits by contemporary artists and photographers,” said Brett Rogers, Chair and Director of The Photographer’s Gallery.

“Each of them explores important global issues but none more urgent and powerful than that of Walid Raad/The Atlas Group. Raad’s work opens up new possibilities for reinterpreting photography’s role in the construction of ‘history’ especially in connection with his main project on the Lebanese Civil Wars.”

“He demonstrates a new form of conceptual practice, one that combines the poetic with the political, and yet remains playfully engaging,” Rogers added. “Through his work, Walid Raad questions the role of authorship and authenticity, ‘fact as a process’, presenting the world and its functions as a complex layer of systems.

From the series We decided to let them say, "we are convinced" twice, 2002 © The Atlas Group/ Courtesy Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London

The judging panel comprised Krysztof Candrowicz (Poland), Director of the Lodz Art Center; Shirana Shahbazi (Iran), winner of The Photographers’ Gallery 2002 Photography Prize; Urs Stahel (Switzerland), Director of the Fotomuseum Winterthur and Anne-Marie Beckmann (Frankfurt), Curator at the Art Collection Deutsche Börse.

The other shortlisted photographers of this year’s Prize, who were each awarded £3,000, were Philippe Chancel, Anders Petersen and Fiona Tan. All of them can be seen at the Photographer's Gallery until April 9 2007.