British photographer John Stezaker has been shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2012 alongside South African Pieter Hugo, Japanese Rinko Kawauchi and US Christopher Williams.

Organised by The Photographers' Gallery in London, the competition comes with a £30,000 cash prize, which will be awarded to one of the four shortlisted photographers next summer.

The photographers were selected for a specific body of work in an exhibition or publication format, which "has significantly contributed to photography in Europe between 01 October 2010 and 30 September 2011.

Stezaker was nominated for his exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, which took place from 29 January to 18 March 2011. Hugo receives his nod for his publication Permanent Error, published this year by Prestel.

Kawauchi is nominated for her publication Illuminance, published by Editions Xavier Barral; while Williams was chosen for his exhibition Kapitalistischer Realismus at Dum umení Ceské Budejovice, Budweis in the Czech Republic.

The four photographers were selected by a panel of jurors that included François Hébel of Les Rencontres d'Arles; photographer Martin Parr; Beatrix Ruf, director and curator of the Kunsthalle Zürich; and Anne-Marie Beckmann, a curator for Deutsche Börse's art collection.

The jury was chaired by Brett Rogers, director of The Photographers' Gallery, who comments: "Each finalist addresses in a timely way issues of critical importance within contemporary photography. Operating between portraiture and social documentary, Pieter Hugo confronts us with the unsettling reality of the impact of e-waste in Ghana; Rinko Kawauchi brings her highly personal sensibility to bear on fragments of everyday life; John Stezaker demonstrates a rigorous exploration of the subversive force of the found image; and finally, alluding to the language of commercial photography, Christopher Williams continuously questions the aesthetic conventions and communication tools that influence our perception of reality."

Works by the shortlisted photographers will be shown in an exhibition at The Photographers' Gallery next summer.

For more information, visit photonet.org.uk.

Yakubu Al Hasan, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2009 © Pieter Hugo, Courtesy of Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town and Yossi Milo Gallery, New York.

Marriage (Film Portrait Collage) XLIII, 2007, Collage, 25x20 cm, 9.8x7.9 ins © Courtesy of the artist, John Stezaker, and The Approach, London.

Fachhochschule Aachen, Fachbereich Gestaltung, Studiengang: Visuelle Kommunikation, Fotolabor für Studenten, Boxgraben 100, Aachen, November 8th, 2010 © Christopher Williams.