Scotiabank Photography Award finalists announced Canada's richest photography prize moved a step closer to choosing its third laureate on Tuesday, as the jury for the Scotiabank Photography Award announced that Vancouver's Stan Douglas, Montrealer Angela Grauerholz and New York-based Robert Walker are the three finalists for this year's $50,000 prize. The short-listed artists, all well-recognized Canadian talents, were selected from a list of nominees provided by curators, photographers, critics and others involved in the visual arts in Canada. Photographer Edward Burtynsky, founder chair of the SPA, commended the finalists for the "fearlessness" of their art. Their exhibited work is strikingly different, though all three share an interest in the intersections of history, memory and the passing moment. In addition to the cash prize, the winner, who will be named on May 16, will receive a show at the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival in 2014, and a book published by the German art photography publisher Steidl. The runners up each get $5,000. The jurors were National Gallery of Canada curator Ann Thomas, Vancouver Art Gallery administrator Karen Love, and arts writer and publisher William Ewing. Here are three images from the bodies of work they chose for their short list: Stan Douglas. Maritime Worker's Hall, 2006 Laserchrome print, mounted on aluminum 260 x 130 cm Dim rows of empty chairs face a huge well-lit mural packed with scenes of bustling industrial activity around an idealized waterfront. The bright optimism of the muralist's past jars against the present fact of Canada's dwindling industrial base, particularly in martime communities. Angela Grauerholz. Hospital, 1987 Azo dye print 48 x 64 inches The angle of shot stresses the stern monumentality of the building, suggesting the fear many of us associate with hospitals. As in much of Grauerholz's work, the blur, low light and minimal detail of the sepia-toned image propose a visual metaphor for the creative, appromixating function of memory. Robert Walker. Little Italy, NY, 1978 Cibachrome print, 20 x 16 inches The three figures each strike a similar contraposto slump, behind a forest of upended candy apples. As usual, Walker's camera is drawn to bold colour concentrations, striking contrasts and the visual order that can appear spontaneously in casual situations.