15. Leica Street Photo Contest

Exhibition

The Leica Street Photo Contest is dedicated to street photography in all its facets. The 15th edition of the internationally renowned competition and the selection of 29 finalists reflect this: the range of styles and themes that make up street photography has never been greater.
Initiated as a regional photo competition in Poland, the Leica Street Photo Contest now attracts great international interest. Traditionally, the contest is open not only to professionals, but also to amateurs. This year, the number of submissions was once again overwhelming: 2.803 people from 103 countries took part in the 15th edition, submitting a total of over 12,000 photographs. The Leica Gallery Vienna is showing 29 works that made it to the final selection and from which the jury has chosen the best picture. This will be honored at the opening of the exhibition and presented with a Leica Q3 43.

The great art of this style is to make the seemingly impossible possible: perfectly composed snapshots, intimate scenes on the street, the diversity of life in a fraction of a second. The fascination of the exhibited photographs lies in the fact that they allow us to experience reality in a new way and enable a shift of perspective: when the trivial becomes the main thing and the everyday becomes exceptional, when the monotonous becomes polyphonic, then photography has succeeded in conveying the magic of the moment. 
The great proponents of humanist photography, from Henri Cartier-Bresson to Vivian Maier, Elliott Erwitt and Joel Meyerowitz, paved the way for the enduring popularity of the genre across generations with their unconventional images and keen sense of the moment, which is characterized by a profound interest in humanity, but also by a unique sense of humour and ambiguity. This year's selection also shows that street photography is a mirror of society: grotesque scenes and moments of absolute seriousness. Silent screams, weightlessness, mirror motifs, and shadow plays bear witness to a world in free fall. In a fraction of a second, reality is interpreted in a mysterious and poetic way.  

 
Jury members: Patryk Wisniewski (6x7 Fotografía – organizer), Phil Penman (photographer), Maciek Zieliński (editor-in-chief of Digital Camera Poland), Laura Ettel and Miriam Marzura (curators at Leica Galerie Wien)

• EXHIBITION 19.03.2026 - 25.04.2026