Up for a prize: refugees, Egypt and surveillance

Daniel Nelson

Trevor Paglen has set himself a difficult task: photographing something that affects everyone but is invisible.

His subject is mass surveillance, and his efforts have got him shortlisted for the annual Deutsche Borse Photography Prize (on display at the Photographers' Gallery).

He tracks down the point at which undersea cables reach land, and enlarges an apparently empty expanse of sky to reveal dots that look like insects but are in fact drones. Another work consists of a rolling list of security codenames.

The pictures are interesting and sometimess haunting, but do not deliver the hammer-blow image that viewers (and photographers) crave. He admits, too, in an accompanying video that "the images are always inadequate" and that they raise more questions than answers. But he works with scientists, amateur astronomers and human rights activists and this undoubtedly is important work.

Even more tellingly, he points out that the very fact that the photographs can be taken - including an aerial view of national security offices, with official permission, "is a mirror of our powerlessness".

Laura El-Tantawy was shortlisted for her self-published photobook,

, which depicts the atmosphere and rising tensions in Cairo in 2005 to 2014 leading up to the January revolution in Tahrir Square. She brings in her own family history as well as eyewitness photography. Though we have seen the crowd scenes in the Square many times they remain immensely powerful (and given current developments, immensely sad) images, and she has also captured a couple of outstanding portarits. 

By focussing on the lives and circumstances of African refugee activists in Europe, Tobias Zielony’s photographs also make an important contribution to coverage of Europe's response to the new arrivals, but it's an indication of the difficulty we feel in maintaining sharp interest in the face of a long-running and complex issue that sometimes you have to make an effort to bother to properly scrutinise such pictures. Yet it's shocking that so many arrive in Europe in search of freedom and security only to find themselves living as outsiders in refugee camps without legal representation or work permits. 

Alongside the images are reports of the immigrants' experiences published in African newspapers and magazines - itself a testimony and a resource we rarely see. Sudanese activist Napuli Paul Langa recalls her asylum interview: "They asked me if I was married, if I was single, how old I was, if my faamily was alive, and so on. I thought, 'Who are you, by the way, to be asking me all these questions? How do I know you're a good guy? Maybe you're in league with my government.' I turned all my answers on their head. I didn't fdeel safe telling them the truth. I didn't trust them."

It's no insult to note that the activists' words, printed in the form of a newspaper that visitors can take away, are as striking as the images.

* The Deutsche Borse Photography Foundation Prize exhibition is at the Photographers' Gaallery, 16–18 Ramillies Street, W1, until 3 July; free before midday, exhibition day pass £3 (£2.50), onliune booking £2.50 (£2). Info: http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/ info@tpg.org.uk/ 7087 9300  

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