The four short-listed contenders in the annual Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, still the most prestigious in the UK, are stretching out lazily in the new building of the Photographers’ Gallery and its more viewer-friendly spaces. As usual, the finalists (a Palestinian New Yorker, two Americans and a Brit) are as diverse in background as their subjects, and photographic approaches cover three decades and explore at macro and micro, state and personal scales.

Taryn Simon’s “inventory of the hidden unfamiliar” joins the trend to present political, military and commercial secrets as deceptively lyrical images, and she exposes American scenarios in surprising examples, including a genetically mutated white tiger and the sublime white-out of a cryo-preservation unit.

Londoner Paul Graham gets my emotional vote, bringing a slow-moving study of mundane moments of anonymous American life. His “filmed haikus” about insignificant people — a man mowing a park, another smoking a cigarette, a sinking sun — are unexceptional by some standards but their compassion holds the key. Tod Papageorge was similarly voyeuristically curious during his strolls through New York’s Central Park in 1969 and 1991 but his pictures lose their power in this company.

Most intriguing is Emily Jacir’s photo-biography of the Palestinian intellectual Wael Zuwaiter, killed by the Israelis in 1972 for his suspected part in the Munich Olympics massacre. Jacir’s tight edit here of her installation for the 2007 Venice Biennale now emphasises objects storing meaning (Zuwaiter’s books, a coin), and letters hint at his activism. Jacir seems to continue his work. Her reconfiguring of the original into a cool, more conceptual piece stirs intellectual curiosity. A tough decision on judgment day, 25 February.
Until 12 April. Information: 0845 262 1618, www.photonet.org.uk.