Leica Hall of Fame Award

“I never wanted to imitate reality. Photography should abstract, go beyond reality, put it in a different context.”

His clear, precise visual language is unique. Abstract, surreal-metaphysical aspects are typical. In over sixty years, a fascinating, dense body of work consisting of individual motifs, series and illustrated books has been created using a wide variety of Leica cameras. Influenced by Dorothea Lange and Robert Frank, whom he assisted in the 1960s, Gibson (born 1939) developed a personal aesthetic based on strong contrasts, graphic precision and visual suggestion through his encounters with European film, literature and music. He has published his work in numerous photo books. In addition to working as a photographer, Gibson also became an important promoter of artistic photography as a publisher.

“Photography is history. There are certain moments that we don’t see unless we photograph them.”

Whether it was the picture of Miriam Makeba singing, or the image of Nelson Mandela looking out through the bars of his former prison cell, the photographer (1931–2020) was responsible for producing some iconic pictures that remain legendary to this day. As a photojournalist and representative of “life photography,” he was a humanist in the best sense of the word. He always encountered the people he portrayed with sympathy and respect, regardless of their nationality or skin colour. Born in Berlin, the photographer was drawn to South Africa in 1950. Not least through his work for Drum magazine, he became the chronicler of an era until he had to leave South Africa in 1964. He did not return until 1985 and photographed his second chapter of South Africa until 2007.

“I live through my photography. That has been my real education. It gives me the drive and the stamina to keep on going.”

He is one of the most important and best-known Italian photographers of the 20th century. Currently living in Milan, Berengo Gardin (born 1930) has always succeeded in maintaining a balance between describing the situation as it is on the day and the moment of timelessness. His images are infused with subtlety, often with a hint of melancholy paired with irony and an underlying sense of humour. At first glance, his compositions appear simple, born out the moment – which is precisely what defines his unique style: to truthfully depict the world in the form of seemingly spontaneous moments, to create a fragment of suspended time yet always within an immaculately arranged composition.

“A good photographer must have a love for people. Photography is a means to create a record. Its purpose is to convey a story, and to enable the viewer to draw a conclusion. This is what makes it attractive.”

To this day, he is considered the “eye of Istanbul.” In the course of half a century, the photographer (1928–2018) travelled all over the world, but Istanbul was his true major photographic passion. This is where he was born and where he lived and worked for most of his life. Since the 1950s, Güler documented the vibrant street life, the hustle and bustle of the big city, but also the hidden everyday life of the inhabitants of this metropolis on the Bosporus, like no other. Using his Leica, he composed and turned the scenes into atmospherically dense photographs. In the process, Güler also became the chronicler of the rapid, not always people-friendly changes in his home city.

“With the curiosity that led me out into the world, I wanted to understand the world photographically and communicate its upheavals, its history. As a photographer that’s all I can do.”

The Swiss photographer (1933–2014) always travelled the world full of curiosity and openness towards other cultures, ways of life and political approaches. Whether journalistic series, stunning individual pictures, sensitive artistic portraits or fascinating architectural studies, the photographer, and renowned member of the Magnum photo agency, always managed to capture a timeless dimension beyond the pictures’ political, social or historic messages. Thus, the motif taken in the building of the Ministry of Health in Rio de Janeiro is not only a perfect composition of light and shadow, but also reflects, en passant, social role models.

“Everything I can do, I’ve learned as I’ve gone along. I always went for broke and tried to do my best.”

She is a concise chronicler of the times. Her images document essential moments that remain engrained in our collective memory. From 1959 onwards, the photographer (born 1939) worked for the FAZ newspaper, and from 1970 to the end of 2004, she was a full-time editorial photographer specialising in politics and features. Whether student protests, the Cold War, the fall of the Wall or the Kohl era and modern Germany, Barbara Klemm has shot the defining image. In addition, she has travelled all over the world, capturing people’s lives and daily routines in sensitive photographs.