One of the prestigious camera companies, Leica, is proud to present the 12 shortlisted nominees of its renowned photography contest, the Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA). This year, 80 international photographers from 50 nations participated in the challenge to for the highly endowed accolade. In its 44th edition, the award is named after Oskar Barneck, the pioneer of Leica and one of the earliest photographers to document the relationships between humans and their ever-evolving environments.
The lead image is by Etinosa Yvonne, and courtesy of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award.
This year, the Leica Oskar Barnack Award‘s jury included five esteemed global experts from within the field who chose the nominees, including winners in the main and newcomer categories. They are Dimitri Beck, Head of the Photography Department at Polka; Per Gylfe, Director of Education at the International Center of Photography (ICP); Ciril Jazbek, Photographer and LOBA Newcomer Winner 2013; Amélie Schneider, Head of the Picture Editorial Department at Die Zeit; and Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, Art Director and General Representative of Leica Galleries International.
The winners of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award will be announced on October 10 in a grant ceremony hosted at Leica headquarters in Wetzlar, Germany. In the primary category, the victor will receive 40,000 euros and Leica camera equipment valued at 10,000 euros. The winner of the Newcomer Award category (recognizing photographers under 30) will receive 10,000 euros and a Leica Q3. Moreover, the winning series will be displayed in a stunning showcase at the Ernst Leitz Museum in Wetzlar, Germany, and then it will tour the world.
“The LOBA is undoubtedly a milestone in the international photography scene and plays a key role in promoting good visual storytelling,” states Beck. “The presentation of a shortlist of twelve photographers and their works is important to explore the diversity of visions and stories happening today.”
Without further ado, let’s look at the exceptional nominees who beat the odds:
Table of Contents
Forough Alaei: The Underneath of the Calm Streets of Iran
In September 2022, the violent death of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini ushered a powerful backlash against the official state rules of conduct, leading to monumental protests and rebellions across the country. Through this series, Alaei, an Iranian herself, portrays the conviction of young women who chanted, celebrated, and lived by the slogan “woman, life, freedom.” Thus, it emphasizes the rise of a renewed era of women—many of whom are dancers, restaurant managers, motorbike racers, car mechanics, or stunt women—fiercely fighting for their rights to survival and liberation.
Anush Babajanyan: Nagorno-Karabakh War and Exodus
For many years, warfare devastated the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, which Armenians predominantly inhabited. The area, which extends along the southeast of the mountainous area of Lesser Caucasus, had many families living there until they were compelled to flee in September of 2023. The series is a documentation of the threats, displacement, and uncertain future faced by those who have no way of returning.
Ksenia Ivanova: Between the Trees of the South Caucasus
In 2008, Russian troops stationed in neighboring Georgia declared the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Since then, the unresolved conflict has haunted those in the region. To share their plight, the photographer documented the tension surrounding the South Caucasus between 2018 and 2023, hoping to ask the vital question: What is the future here? And what are the potential consequences for those residing there?
Maria Gutu: Homeland
In the Eastern European country of Moldova, children grow up without parents. The reason is the country’s economy has compelled a quarter in the last two decades to pursue more satisfactory livelihoods elsewhere. This series is personal, as it portrays the backstory of the Moldovan photographer, Gutu, who was born in 1996 and raised by her grandparents. What you see here is a poetic depiction of her search for a home, the meaning of which changes time and again—even in the understanding of the children.
Lucas Lenci: Inattention Era
Millions are troubled by the sensory overload of daily life. Lenci, a Brazilian photographer, captured empty public spaces to serve as an analogy for the overwhelming surplus of information one can’t process. Lenci describes this state as an era characterized by ubiquitous distraction and absence of mind.
Adriana Loureiro Fernandez: Paradise Lost
Hailing from Venezuela, Fernandez defines the forlorn conditions of her country as her diary. Since the last decade, she has recorded the land’s collapse—poverty, inflation, violence—and a sliver of hope. Unlike adults, Fernandez witnessed the desire for a more promising tomorrow in the young generation who had not fled the country. “Somewhere between the beauty and the horror is Paradise Lost,” as the photographer says.
Emily Garthwaite: Tears of the Tigris
Born in 1993, the British photojournalist and her series follow the 1,900 kilometers of the River Tigris – from its source in Turkey, all the way to its mouth in Iraq. Garthwaite examines political loyalties, ethnic ties, national borders and the changing geography. The river is on the brink of an environmental disaster which will affect roughly 30 million people who live in the river’s catchment area, threatening the region’s cultural heritage.
Sara Meneses Cuapio: Raízhambre (Root Hunger)
A once lush forest lies on the slopes of Matlalcuéyetl, an inactive volcano in Tlaxcala, Mexico. The forest has dwindled recently, resulting from illegal logging and a bark beetle infestation. While this is an environmental concern, it also rings alarm bells for the Nahua culture, for whom the woodland holds spiritual value. Cuapio, whose family has ties to the region, depicts the connection between the destruction of nature and the loss of cultural heritage through this series.
Davide Monteleone: Critical Minerals – Geography of Energy
“How can sustainability emerge in the future without repeating past errors?” asks Monteleone, an Italy-based photographer. In his series Critical Minerals, he examines the need for renewable energy sources arising from transforming the global energy industry. However, such copper, lithium, and cobalt mining metamorphosis comes at a cost, resulting in far-reaching geopolitical, social, and ecological consequences for Chile, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Indonesia.
Ingmar Björn Nolting: An Anthology of Changing Climate
Every country has some goals for battling the climate crisis, but Germany has set one that is paradoxical for its complex status quo. The country now faces a social and ecological division in society, which stems from the country’s desire to be a climate-neutral industrialized nation by 2045. But do they have any solutions? To examine this, German photographer Nolting shares this series, which questions how social consensus can find answers to the challenges of climate change.
Tong Niu: Express Delivery
The golden era of Chinese logistics and courier branches has concluded. Created in the Jiangsu region of the country, the photographer used a large format camera to portray the life of e-commerce and express deliveries in megacities. Through this journey to depict the transforming landscape, Niu also caught glimpses of nostalgia as individuals visit their original hometowns, a safe space they left behind in the hopes of a more promising future.
Etinosa Yvonne: It’s All in My Head
As the most populated country in the African continent, Nigeria’s multi-ethnic and multi-religious regions are continuously struggling with atrocities and clashes of variable spans. Since 2018, Yvonne has collaborated with over sixty traumatized adults and youngsters in various parts of the country to create this moving, research-based multimedia project. The photographer hopes to share their experiences and wishes to raise awareness and empathy for the region, where individuals are struggling to survive amid the growing brutalities and terrorism.