Leica Camera AG (hereinafter referred to as Leica) will be holding the Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA) international photography contest again this year.
LOBA is a world-renowned photography contest that was first held in 1980. Currently, it awards outstanding photographers and their work series every year in two categories, the “General Category” and the “Newcomer Category.” The award plays a major role as a meaningful contest in the modern photography world.
Requirements for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award
The internationally diverse judges are different every year, and all the awards are judged by a panel of five people. This year’s judges are as follows (titles omitted):
- Dimitri Beck (France): Head of Photography, Polka (magazine, gallery, concept store)
- Per Gülvy (USA): Head of Education, International Center of Photography (ICP, New York City)
- Cyril Yazbek (Slovenia): Photographer (2013 Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award winner)
- Amelie Schneider (Germany): Photo Editor-in-Chief of Die Zeit
- Karin Rehn-Kaufmann (Austria): Representative and Artistic Director of Leica Gallery International
The selection process for the general category will be the same as last year, with candidates first being recommended by more than 80 photography experts from about 50 countries around the world. After that, finalists will be selected in the first round of judging for both the general category and the newcomer category, and the winners will be decided after the final round of judging.
The first and final rounds of judging for both the general and newcomers categories will take place at the Leica Camera headquarters in Wetzlar at the end of May 2019. A maximum of 12 finalists will be selected in the first round, and the winners will be decided in the subsequent final round.
As a preliminary step, candidates for the general category will be selected through a nomination process by more than 80 photography experts from approximately 50 countries around the world. Each nominator will evaluate a series of 15 to 20 photographs based on their own expertise, and will nominate up to three photographers as candidates for the award.
The condition for a photographer to be nominated is that their work must be documentary or conceptual art photography with the theme of “the relationship between people and their surroundings.” This selection concept of “always focusing on humans” has been consistent since the founding of LOBA in 1979.
The newcomer category, the Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award, is for young photographers under the age of 30 and was established in 2009. As in the previous year, candidates for the Newcomer Category are first selected through recommendations from photography-related higher education institutions in 20 countries around the world as a preliminary step to the judging process.
The LOBA website provides an overview of the competition, a list of this year’s nominators and nominator institutions, and interviews with past judges and nominators.
Prize Money
The Leica Oskar Barnack Award continues to steadily increase its authority as an international photography contest and has become one of the world’s leading contests in terms of prize money.
The winner of the general category will receive a cash prize of 40,000 Euros, the winner of the newcomer category will receive a cash prize of 10,000 Euros, and as a supplementary prize, the winner of the general category will receive a Leica camera worth 10,000 Euros, and the winner of the newcomer category will receive a Leica Q3.
Touring Exhibition
The winning and finalist works will be exhibited in a traveling exhibition around the world, starting with the Ernst Leitz Museum in Wetzlar in October this year, and will then be exhibited in Leica Galleries and major photography festivals.
In addition, the organization will publish a catalogue that will feature all the works of the winners and finalists, as well as provide detailed explanations of each piece.
All finalists and their works will be announced on the LOBA website this summer, followed by the announcement of the winner at an awards ceremony to be held in Wetzlar in October of this year.
