Leica is one of the companies that have nurtured not just the technical aspects of photography but also its artistic side. An example of this is the Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA), which recognizes the exceptional storytellers around the world. The company has finally announced the finalists of the 45th edition, whose powerful series will leave an impact on the viewers. The 12 finalists are both established photographers and newcomers, who have been chosen for their immense talent and keen eye. Here is a look at them.
According to Leica, the Oskar Barnack Award featured a diverse panel of jurors: Jane Evelyn Atwood, acclaimed photographer and 1997 LOBA winner (USA/France); Cyril Drouhet, Deputy Director of Photography at Le Figaro Magazine (France); Felix Hoffmann, Artistic Director at Foto Arsenal Vienna (Austria); Curt Holtz, Editor-in-Chief at Prestel Publishing (Germany); and Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, Art Director of Leica Galleries International (Austria). Together, they saw the works of photographers from about 50 countries.
Established in 1980, the winners of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award will be revealed on October 9, 20205, at a ceremony in Wetzlar as part of Leica’s “100 Years of Leica: Witness to a Century” celebrations. The title winner will receive 40,000 euros and Leica equipment valued at 10,000 euros, while the newcomer winner will be awarded 10,000 euros and a Leica Q3 camera.
Here is a look at the finalists:
- Lynsey Addario: Mom, I Want to Live is a series where the American photographer portrays a Ukrainian girl’s struggle with cancer during wartime.
- Arlette Bashizi: Beyond Numbers is a series that offers a deeply personal look at the displacement crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- Alejandro Cegarra: In his series, The Two Walls, Cegarra documents the plight of asylum seekers in Mexico’s shifting immigration landscape.
- Serghei Duve: Bright Memory is an exploration of nostalgia and post-Soviet identity in Transnistria by the photographer.
- Gideon Mendel: Deluge, a series by Mendal, captures the global impact of flooding through portraits and landscapes since 2007.
- Stanislav Ostrous: Civilians. The Gray Zone paints a stark black-and-white depiction of war-torn Ukraine.
- Xiangjie Peng: Peng’s The Rise of Queer Underground Party Culture in China is a powerful depiction of LGBTQ+ spaces under state suppression.
- Ivor Prickett: War on the Nile – Fragmented Sudan by Prickett showcases the harrowing reality of one of the world’s most overlooked humanitarian crises.
- Frederik Rüegger: I Am a Stranger in This Country by Rüegger chronicles the lives and traditions of English and Irish Traveller communities.
- Anastasia Taylor-Lind: Her series, 5km from the Frontline, is a decade-long documentation of life in the Donbass region.
- Jodi Windvogel: Life Under Occupation – Cissie Gool House is a photo essay on Cape Town’s housing justice movement.
- Zhan Youbing: His series, Migrant Workers in China’s Assembly Line, showcases thirty years of photographing migrant labor in Dongguan.
The works, after the award ceremony, will be displayed at the Ernst Leitz Museum in Wetzlar. As one can see, the images are quite powerful and showcase the significance of visual media in today’s world. These stories, which are of so much importance, would otherwise often go unnoticed. The winning work and the finalists’ images will also tour various Leica Galleries and international photo festivals. This way, many people, who may be from the cities where the project was shot can see the human condition in its truest form.
For more information, head to the Leica Oskar Barnack Award‘s website.