The Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA) will be awarded for the 45th time in 2025. This year the world-renowned photography contest, endowed with a coveted prize, is unfolding within the framework of the Leica anniversary year 2025, the motto for which is “100 Years of Leica: Witness to a Century”. The jury, for which new members are selected every year, has now been chosen. This year’s LOBA cohort are getting to work as the contest enters the decisive preparatory phase.

The Leica Oskar Barnack Award, which has been bestowed since 1980, has developed into an important forum for showcasing socially engaged, contemporary photography. Once again this year, the search for the award winners is based on nominations from an international council of nominators. The final decisions regarding the LOBA shortlist for 2025, as well as the winners in the main and newcomer categories, will be made by the five-person jury. This year, the jury includes:

Jane Evelyn Atwood, Photographer and 1997 LOBA winner (USA/France)

Cyril Drouhet, Deputy Director of Photography for Le Figaro Magazine (France)

Felix Hoffmann, Curator at Foto Arsenal Vienna (Austria)

Curt Holtz, Photography and Architecture Editor at Prestel Publishing (Germany)

Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, Art Director and Chief Representative of Leica Galleries International (Austria)

www.leica-oskar-barnack-award.com/loba-2025/die-jury.html

In April, the jury will meet at Leica Camera AG’s headquarters in Wetzlar to choose the LOBA winners for the main and newcomer categories from a shortlist of at most twelve series. Prior to this, over 120 photography experts from around 50 countries will have put forward their nominations for this year. Every nominator has selected one to three photo series with 15 to 20 images based on their personal expertise and experience. The prerequisite for receiving a nomination for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award is that the photo series must include works of documentary or conceptual photography that explore the relationship between humanity and the environment. The LOBA Award has remained true to this humanistic endeavour since it first came into being in 1979. That year, Oskar Barnack, the inventor of the Ur-Leica after whom the award is named, would have turned 100.

The Leica Oskar Barnack Award Newcomer category, which was added to the main category in 2009 and recognises photographers aged under 30, is once again being bestowed in collaboration with 20 international institutions and universities from 17 countries, which are nominating artists. You can already find an up-to-date list of all nominators for the 2025 LOBA and information about the LOBA, as well as interviews with jury members and nominators from past years, on the LOBA website: www.leica-oskar-barnack-award.com/loba-2025/die-nominatoren.html

The reputation of the LOBA has been growing steadily. It is among the most important international photography awards, not least because of the financial support it provides. The main prize is 40,000 euros, as well as Leica camera equipment worth 10,000 euros. The winner of the Newcomer Award will receive 10,000 euros and a Leica Q3. In addition, the winning series, together with those on the LOBA shortlist, will be presented in a touring exhibition. This will initially be shown at the Ernst Leitz Museum Wetzlar in October, which is also where the award ceremony will take place. Afterwards, the series will be exhibited at Leica Galleries and select photography festivals worldwide. The series by both winners and all shortlist candidates will also be presented in detail in an accompanying catalogue.

From mid-July onwards, the series by all shortlist candidates will be displayed on the LOBA website. Then, in October 2025, the announcement of the prize winners and award ceremony for both categories will take place in Wetzlar.

Further information is available at: www.leica-oskar-barnack-award.com