Afros, quiffs and a swan lake: Deutsche Börse photography prize 2014 – in pictures

Moving image … Momentum, 2011 (production still)

American artist Lorna Simpson uses video narratives – along with text and photography – to explore race, identity and gender. She's been tipped by Sean O'Hagan as the frontrunner for the prize


Photograph: Lorna Simpson/Salon 94

Lorna Simpson's Waterbearer, 1986
Photograph: Lorna Simpson

Rose-coloured lens … Safe From Harm, North Kivu, eastern Congo, 2012

Ireland's Richard Mosse is nominated for his multimedia installation The Enclave, which showed at the Venice Biennale. Mosse and collaborators Trevor Tweeten and Ben Frost documented rebel leaders in eastern Congo in 2012 using infrared film, an attempt, he has said, 'to rethink war photography'


Photograph: Richard Mosse/Jack Shainman Gallery

Richard Mosse's Man-Size, North Kivu, Eastern Congo, 2012
Photograph: Richard Mosse/Jack Shainman Gallery

Taking a selfie … Self-Portrait with Ana Curra, 1984

Alberto García-Alix is nominated for his book Autorretrato/Self-Portrait. Over nearly four decades, the Spanish photographer has amassed glimpses of himself and his surroundings to create a wholly self-referential body of work


Photograph: Alberto García-Alix

Alberto García-Alix's My Feminine Side, 2002
Photograph: Alberto García-Alix

Animal magnetism … Untitled (Four Swans), 2006

Nominated for his self-titled show at Hamburger Kuntshalle, German biologist turned photographer Jochen Lempert chronicles the natural world – from flocks of birds to volcanoes – through the eyes of both an artist and a scientist


Photograph: Jochen Lempert/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Jochen Lempert's Untitled (Girl in Telephone Booth), 1993/2011
Photograph: Jochen Lempert/Galería ProjecteSD