In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the respected Leica Oskar Barnack Award, Leica Camera AG further heightens the prestige of the Award with a new nomination-based submission process.

In a shift away from the traditional application-based model, the Leica Oskar Barnack Award will consider finalists and ultimately select winners based on nominations from 70 world-renowned photographic experts from over 30 countries. With this nomination process, the honor of being chosen as a finalist is an esteemed accomplishment of its own, as they are recognized and hand-selected by some of the most respected figures impacting the world of photography.

Each nominator will elect three photographers based upon their personal evaluation and judgment of the photographer’s work. The only requirements for nominations for the Award are that the photographer’s work must be a documentary or conceptual work on the theme of the relationship between mankind and its environment. In addition to the three photographers nominated for the main Award, each jury member will nominate one photographer under 30 years old for the Newcomer Award.

In May, the jury gathered at the Leica Camera headquarters in Wetzlar to select the winner of the 2020 Leica Oskar Barnack Award. For the first time in the Award’s 40 year history, the winner will receive a prize of €40,000, in addition to a Leica camera worth €10,000, and the publication of the photographs in an exhibition that will travel across the Leica Galerie network worldwide.
Additionally, the winner of the Newcomer Award will receive a photography assignment and two weeks of tutoring at Leica Camera AG Headquarters in Wetzlar, as well as a Leica Q camera worth €5,000.

The ceremony to present both winners will be held in Wetzlar on September 24, 2020. In celebration of 40 years of recognizing talented photographers, a special exhibition will showcase photographs from the 2020 LOBA winner, as well as works from select previous winners at the Ernst Leitz Museum and Leica Gallery Wetzlar.

Here are the LOBA 2020 finalists:


SHORTLIST

Matthew Abbott, Black Summer

Ragnar Axelsson, Arctic Heroes – Where the world is melting

Giovanni Cocco, Displacement – New Town No Town

Vincent Fournier, Space Project

Emil Gataullin, Mezen: By Sky’s Edge

Maïmouna Guerresi, Beyond the border – A journey to Touba

Luca Locatelli, Future Studies

Cristina de Middel, Journey to the Center

Hashem Shakeri, Cast Out of Heaven

Davide Monteleone, Sinomocene

Namhun Sung, Red Island

Anastasia Taylor-Lind, 5km from the Frontline

Watch the complete series here.

SHORTLIST NEWCOMER

Hugh Kinsella Cunningham, Wild Fire (Ebola amidst Conflict)

Fabiola Ferrero, The Blue Side of Fire

Gonçalo Fonseca, New Lisbon

Lindokuhle Sobekwa, Daleside

George Voronov, We Became Everything

Sharon Pulwer, God Fearing Woman

Watch the complete series here.

The Nominators

The Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2020 considered finalists and ultimately selected winners based on nominations from 65 world-renowned photographic experts from over 30 countries:

Monica Allende (Spain), Curator
Alia Alyasi (UAE), from Louvre Abu Dhabi
Peggy Sue Amison (UAE), Artistic Director for East Wing Gallery, Dubai
Jose Luis Amores (Spain), Director of EFTI (Centro Internacional De Fotografía y Cine)
Regina Anzenberger (Austria), Director, Anzenberger Gallery, Vienna
Michael Benson (United Kingdom), Director of Prix Pictet and founder of Photo London
Thomas Borberg (Denmark), Chief Photo Editor at Politiken
Bruno Boudjelal (France), Photographer
Manila Camarini (Italy), Director of Photography La Repubblica
Krzysztof Candrowicz (Poland), Art Director, Curator
Claudio Carreras (Spain), Photo Editor
Marianne Catzaras (Tunisia), Photographer
GintarasČesonis (Lithuania), Curator at Kaunas Photography Gallery
Irina Chmyreva (Russia), Art Director, PhotoVisa International Photo Festival, Krasnodar
Claudio Composti (Italy), Gallerist and Curator
José Miguel Moreira de Sousa Nogueira (Portugal), Photo Editor at Câmara Municipal do Porto
Simindokht Dehghani (Iran), Director of Ag Galerie, Teheran
Benedetta Donato (Italy), Curator
Rune Eraker (Norway), Photographer, Curator and Editor of Norwegian Journal of Photography
Behzad Farazollahi (Norway), Founder and Director at MELK
Xuan Feng (China), Founder and Group Editorial Director of HuaSheng Media
Joan Fontcuberta (Spain), Curator
Alice Gabriner (USA), Photo Editor
Alessia Glaviano (Italy), Brand Visual Director of Vogue Italia Read Interview
Walter Guadagnini (Italy), Professor at the University in Bologna and Director of Camera
Sunil Gupta (India), Artist, Writer, Activist and Curator
David Hagger (Australia), Curator
Nick Hannes (Belgium), Photography teacher
Raúl Henao (Colombia), Director Tecnología en Producción Fotográfica LCI Bogotá
Magdalena Herrera (France), Director of Photography at GEO France Read Interview
Caroline Hunter (United Kingdom), Picture Editor at The Guardian Read Interview
I-Jong Juan (China), Photographer, Writer, Publisher, Photographic Professor
Matjaz Krivic (Slovenia), Photographer
Anne Lacoste (France), Director, Institut de la Photographie, Lille
Eyal Landesman (Israel), Founder and Artistic Director of the Israeli Photography Festival
Oliver Laurent (USA), Director of Photography International Edition at Washington Post
Gwen Lee (Singapore), Co-founder of the Singapore International Photo Festival
Steven Lee (Malaysia), Director of the Kuala Lumpur Photography Awards Read Interview
Bettina Leidl (Austria), Director of Kunst Haus Wien and Foto Wien Fotofestival
Mark Lubell (USA), Executive Director International Center of Photography, New York Read Interview
Elisa Medde (Netherland), Photo editor at Foam magazine
Azu Nwagbogu (Nigeria), Director of African Artists’ Foundation and Lagos Photo festival
Naoko Ohta (Japan), Founder of Tokyo Curiosity
Silvia Omedes (Spain), Curator and Photo Editor
Manuel Rivera Ortiz (Puerto Rico/USA), Photographer
Hercules Papaioannou (Greece), Director of Thessaloniki Museum of Photography
Søren Pagter (Denmark), Head of Photography Department, Danish School of Journalism
Andrei Polikanov (Russia), Director of Photography at Russian Reporter
Brett Rogers (United Kingdom), Curator, Director of the Photographers’ Gallery, London
Moshe Rosenzveig (Australia), Founder and Director Head on Photo Festival
Gen Sadakane (Germany), Founder and Creative Director at EyeEm
Alan Schaller (United Kingdom), Photographer and Co-founder of SPI
Kazuko Sekji (Japan), Chief Curator of Tokyo Photographic museum
Laura Serani (France), Curator and Author
Johan Sjostrom (Sweden), Curator of Exhibitions, Gothenburg Museum of Art
Sujong Song (South Korea), Photography consultant
Enrico Stefanelli (Italy), Director of Photolux Festival
Anthony Suau (USA), Photographer
Olga Sviblova (Russia), Director of Multi-Media Art Museum, Moscow
Gaia Tripoli (Italy), London-based Photo Editor for The New York Times
Nanda van den Berg (Netherland), Director of Huis Marseille
Benjamin Villegas (Colombia), Owner of Villegas Editores
István Virágvölgyi (Hungary), Curator at Robert Capa Center
Vineet Vohra (India), Street Photographer
Duan Yuting (China), Founder and Director Lianzhou Foto Festival, Lianzhou Museum of Photography

The Jury 2020

This year, the members of the international jury of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award are:

JOEL MEYEROWITZ
Art Director and Photographer (USA/Italy)

PAULINE BENTHEDE
Director of Exhibitions, Fotografiska International (Sweden)

MALIN SCHULZ
Art Director and member of the editorial board of DIE ZEIT (Germany)

KLAUS KEHRER
Publisher (Germany)

KARIN REHN-KAUFMANN
Art Director and Chief Representative Leica Galleries International (Austria)

More info on: https://www.leica-oskar-barnack-award.com/en

* Cover picture by Emil Gataullin