Nominees For The 40th Leica Oskar Barnack Award Announced

© Luca Locatelli 'Future Studies' - Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA)

The finalists have been selected for both the main and newcomer categories of the internationally renowned, Leica Oskar Barnack Award photo competition. The Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA) is an annual, international photography award established by Leica Camera in 1979. Named after Leica founder, Oskar Barnack, the award inspires and supports photographers at all stages of their career by recognising innovative and creative work. Chosen by an international jury, the winner of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award will demonstrate their unerring powers of observation to capture the relationship between man and the environment in the most graphic form in a sequence of 10 - 12 images. The award features two categories, the ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Award’ and the ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Award Newcomer’, for up-and-coming professional photographers under the age of 30, underlining Leica’s support for contemporary and future generations.

To mark the LOBA’s 40th anniversary, Leica Camera AG has restructured the application and selection process and increased the prizes for the two winners. The main category winner will receive prize money amounting to 40,000 euros and camera equipment valued at 10,000 euros. The newcomer winner will receive an assignment, a two-week tutoring course at Leica Camera AG Headquarters in Wetzlar and a Leica Q camera. Furthermore, both winning series’ will be exhibited at Leica’s galleries worldwide. The newly re-structured application process started with 65 photography experts from over 30 countries submitting their proposed finalist to Leica. From this selection, this year’s jury put together the LOBA 2020 shortlist. On 22 October 2020, the winners in the main and newcomer categories will be honoured at an award ceremony at Leica’s historic headquarters in Germany.

© Matthew Abbott 'Black Summer' - Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA)

With the kind support of WhiteWall, there will also be exhibitions presenting the winner’s work, as well as a comprehensive presentation, 40 Years Leica Oskar Barnack Award, with an accompanying catalogue, at the Ernst Leitz Museum. In the meantime, all the finalists in this year’s shortlist are being presented on the LOBA website.

Leica celebrates more than 100 years of history and continues its commitment to iconic photography of past, present and future. Their extensive archive of the world's most famous photographers and images continues to result in rich and varied exhibitions that are shown all over the world. Since being established 40 years ago, LOBA has become one of the most prestigious international photography awards, attracting several thousand entries from across the globe each year. LOBA has become an integral part of Leica's commitment to celebrate and support photographers at all stages of their career.

The LOBA 2020 shortlist candidates are:

• Matthew Abbott
• Ragnar Axelsson
• Giovanni Cocco
• Vincent Fournier
• Emil Gataullin
• Maïmouna Guerresi
• Luca Locatelli
• Cristina de Middel
• Davide Monteleone
• Hashem Shakeri
• Namhun Sung
• Anastasia Taylor-Lind

Newcomer 2020:

• Hugh Kinsella Cunningham
• Fabiola Ferrero
• Gonçalo Fonseca
• Sharon Pulwer
• Lindokuhle Sobekwa
• George Voronov

All the shortlisted picture series are available to see online on the LOBA website.