“The World Deserves Witnesses” – in 2021, Leica adopted this motto to launch a successful brand campaign, celebrating the art of photography as a witness to the world. With the likes of Joel Meyerowitz, Steve McCurry and Elliott Erwitt, the greats of photography bore testimony to our world, while emerging talents and distinguished photojournalists also contributed their share. The particularity of “The World Deserves Witnesses” campaign is that Leica does not commission any pieces, but curates the existing work of photographers who are eye-witnesses of our times. Leica is now calling photographers of all ages, using any equipment to become witnesses, and to submit their work centered around the themes “Joy” and “Hope”. The deadline for submissions is September 30th, 2022.
Photographers have always played a decisive role in capturing the world’s small and large stories. Their images have immortalized the fleeting moments. With its multi-award-winning brand campaign, “The World Deserves Witnesses”, Leica has created a monument acknowledging this fact. Over 30 photographers from a diversity of backgrounds took part in the first three waves; their works are part of the print and online campaigns, as well as the video manifesto, which has been viewed over 30 million times to date. “The World Deserves Witnesses” campaign recently received its 10th international award, with a second bronze Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, in the “Photography Craft” category and now moves into the next chapter: With the Leica Witnesses Photographers Call, Leica is engaging further with the image-makers community of the world and inviting photographers of all ages using any equipment to submit their pictures and to share their stories. The call is open between June 30th and September 30th, 2022, focusing on the themes of “Joy” and “Hope”.
Information about the call
The selected pieces will be part of the new “The World Deserves Witnesses” campaign, and the selected photographers be acknowledged as Leica Witnesses. A shortlist will be published in October 2022, and the selected Leica Witnesses Photographers announced in November. The next wave of “The World Deserves Witnesses” campaign will be launched in January 2023.
Organized by Leica, the Leica Witnesses Photographers Call will be run using the Picter platform. Photographers should register at Picter at: https://contests.picter.com/leica-become-a-witness . All details regarding the call can be found on Picter.