This year’s motif originates from the legendary American photographer Joel Meyerowitz and will be offered exclusively at Leica Galleries International

Joel Meyerowitz (born in 1938) has been among the most influential photographers in the United States since the 1960s. His street photography shots are unmistakable, with colour playing an essential role as a design element. In summer 2025, the Ernst Leitz Museum hosted the brilliant retrospective The Joy of Seeing, showcasing 100 motifs from his body of work. As part of Leica’s 2025 anniversary celebrations with the motto “100 Years of Leica: Witness to the Century”, the photographer was invited to curate 100 of his finest images. The motif titled “Puerto Rican Day Parade, Manhattan, New York 1963” has now been selected as Leica Picture of the Year 2025. It is part of Joel Meyerowitz’s early photographic work and will be released as a limited edition print, available exclusively at all Leica Galleries worldwide from December 2025.

For the art director, then employed at a New York advertising agency, it was precisely 90 minutes that prompted his life-changing decision to pursue photography as a profession: he had watched photographer Robert Frank at work and was profoundly impressed by the way he moved with his Leica – gliding with somnambulistic ease. That very day, Meyerowitz quit his job and threw himself into the exhilarating world of street photography. A Leica M2 became his preferred tool for honing his visual instincts day after day and swiftly identifying perfect moments within complex everyday scenes. Above all, he discovered the vital tension he sought in the everyday magic of New York City’s bustling streets. The Leica Picture of the Year also evokes those formative experiences: “I used the parades as a way to overcome my shyness. Because the people in the crowd were absorbed by the passing show in the street, I could slip in under their gaze like a plane flying too low to be picked up on radar,” the photographer remembers. “They were about the heat of the moment.”

The Leica Picture of the Year was captured on the fringes of the Puerto Rican Day Parade – an enduring celebration that remains a fixture in New York City’s annual parade calendar. Since 1959, it has been an expression of self-confidence and celebration of Puerto Rico’s rich culture and history, particularly for the millions of people of Puerto Rican descent living across the United States. Every second Sunday in June, the parade winds its way through Manhattan, drawing throngs of spectators. Here, four women have gathered in a shop doorway on Fifth Avenue, absorbed in the process of perfecting their make-up. Amid the parade’s pulsating hustle and bustle, Meyerowitz’s presence went completely unnoticed, allowing him to respond instinctively to the flood of impressions around him. Was it the colours of people’s clothes, their hairstyles, their shoes that caught his eye? For him, photographing on the street became a form of visual training, as Meyerowitz explains: “One of the very first things I learned working on the street was that when the moment arrives you simply make a picture of the moment.” The image of the four women thus speaks volumes about perception and spontaneity, and can still be viewed today as a document of the times.

Since 2021, Leica Camera AG has been awarding the Leica Picture of the Year to outstanding Leica photographers who have been inducted into the Leica Hall of Fame. To share part of this success with all Leica enthusiasts, a Leica Picture of the Year is selected every year.

The Leica Picture of the Year is available exclusively from the 27 Leica Galleries around the world. This offers all collectors and Leica enthusiasts the opportunity to build up a unique collection of excellent Leica photographs with the limited editions. Following in the footsteps of Ralph Gibson, Thomas Hoepker, Elliott Erwitt and Herlinde Koelbl, Joel Meyerowitz, who has been a member of the Leica Hall of Fame since 2016, now joins this high-calibre group with his Leica Picture of the Year.

Leica Picture of the Year 2025:

Photographer: Joel Meyerowitz

Title: Puerto Rican Day Parade, Manhattan, New York City 1963

Paper: Canson Infinity Satin 260 g/m²

Print: Prolab Fotofachlabor, Germany

Sheet size: 40 × 50 cm [15.75 × 19.69 inch], motif size: 25.4 × 38.1 cm [10 × 15 inch]

Featuring a signature label and edition number

Includes: a certificate of authenticity with an edition number and a presentation folder

Limited edition: 81

Available exclusively at all Leica Galleries

Price: €1,250 (net)

On sale from December 2025

Credits:

Leica Picture of the Year 2025: © Joel Meyerowitz

Caption:

Puerto Rican Day Parade, Manhattan, New York City 1963

Please find further information at: 

Leica Camera AG 

Global Corporate Communications 

E-Mail:  press@leica-camera.com