Deutsche Börse prize for photography goes to chronicler of displaced people

Jim Goldberg - part of a photo from Democratic Republic of Congo. Photograph: Jim Goldberg/Magnum

Magnum photographer Jim Goldberg has documented refugees and immigrants in across the world since 1983

O'Hagan guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 April 2011 20.14 BST larger | smaller Article history

Jim Goldberg has won this year's £30,000 Deutsche Börse prize for photography, in a ceremony hosted by the Photographers' Gallery in London.

The Magnum photographer, who has documented the experiences of refugees, immigrants and displaced people from Africa, the Middle East and eastern Europe since 1983 in a project titled Open See, triumphed over a shortlist that included fine art photographer Thomas Demand, whom many insiders considered the favourite. Goldberg, who lives in San Francisco, and won the 2007 Cartier- Bresson Prize for an earlier version of the same project, describes himself as a documentary storyteller.

Open See was shown to great acclaim at the Photographers' Gallery last year. It features polaroids, video stills, found images and hand-written text often using the words of his subjects.

The chair of the jury, Brett Rogers, praised Goldberg's "timely and inventive approach to documentary practice … allowing these individuals to tell their own stories."