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Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2020: This year’s international jury has been designated

We are delighted to inform that a top-level, international jury will soon be adjudicating submissions to the 40th edition of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award. The jury includes, among others, the renowned photographer Joel Meyerowitz and the publisher Klaus Kehrer. A short list has already been put together from among the large group of this year’s contenders, nominated by 65 international experts from the photography community. In October the winners of the LOBA and the Newcomer Award will be announced.

The Leica Oskar Barnack Award is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. This is reason enough to not only give the nominations process a complete overhaul, but to also use the opportunity to look back over the last 40 years. You can find out all about it on the LOBA website, which documents all the winning series, and is continuously being updated with current texts and interviews.

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

The most important novelty this jubilee year is the group of nominators. The application process that existed up until now, has been replaced this year with nominations being proposed by 65 internationally renowned photography experts. They came from around 30 different countries, thus ensuring great thematic and cultural diversity.

https://www.leica-oskar-barnack-award.com/en/loba-2020/the-nominators.html

Based on their own criteria and personal evaluation of the photographers’ works, each member of the nominating body selected up to three photographers for the main award, and one for the newcomer award. The only prerequisite was that the photographic work be documentary or conceptual, and in line with the basic idea behind the LOBA – the relationship of humanity to its environment. A series of between 15 and 20 images had to be submitted. A selection of interviews with some of the nominators can be found on the LOBA website:

https://www.leica-oskar-barnack-award.com/en/insights.html

 

The members of this year’s LOBA jury are:

 

Joel Meyerowitz, Art Director and Photographer (USA/Italy)

Pauline Benthede, Exhibitions Director, Fotografiska International (Sweden)

Malin Schulz, Art Director and member of the editorial team of ZEIT (Germany)

Klaus Kehrer, Publisher (Germany)

Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, Art Director and Chief Representative of Leica Galleries International (Austria)

 

www.leica-oskar-barnack-award.com/en/loba-2020/the-jury.html

 

For the first time in the LOBA’s forty year history, the winner will receive prize money amounting to 40,000 euros, as well as Leica camera equipment valued at 10,000 euros. The winner of the Newcomer Award will receive a photographic assignment, a two-week tutoring course at Leica Camera AG headquarters in Wetzlar, and a Leica Q valued at 5,000 euros. In addition, the winning series will be displayed within the framework of a touring exhibition at Leica Galleries and at festivals.

Further procedures: As of July, the shortlisted candidates will be presented, while the 2020 LOBA winner will be announced at the award ceremony in October to be held at the Ernst Leitz Museum in Wetzlar. More precise dates will follow shortly. Numerous exhibitions related to this year’s LOBA activities will also be held: in addition to presenting the 2020 LOBA winner at the Ernst Leitz Museum and the Leica Gallery in Wetzlar, there will be a comprehensive jubilee exhibition, “40 Years Leica Oskar Barnack Award”. Furthermore, LFI will produce a special edition magazine dedicated to the 40 year history of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award.

Press Release - LOBA 2020 Jury
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Leica Camera – A Partner for Photography

Leica Camera AG is an international, premium manufacturer of cameras and sports optics. The legendary reputation of the Leica brand is based on a long tradition of excellent quality, German craftsmanship and German industrial design, combined with innovative technologies. An integral part of the brand's culture is the diversity of activities the company undertakes for the advancement of photography. In addition to the Leica Galleries and Leica Akademies spread around the world, there are the Leica Hall of Fame Award and, in particular, the Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA), which is considered one of the most innovative sponsorship awards existing today. Furthermore, Leica Camera AG, with its headquarters in Wetzlar, Hesse, and a second production site in Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal, has a worldwide network of its own national organisations and Leica Retail Stores.