Édouard Elias: Witness
War and flight, oppression and poverty: brutal realities captured in evocative images
To mark the 100-year anniversary of the Leica I, Leica Gallery Wetzlar is presenting a remarkable exhibition of the works of French photographer and photojournalist Édouard Elias.
Elias is part of a young generation of photojournalists who are committed to making humanitarian crises around the globe more visible with empathy and a deep sense of responsibility. Leica Gallery Wetzlar is presenting a selection from his three most important series to date between 29 June and 21 September 2025.
Well 77
With this black-and-white reportage, Elias documented the dramatic work to extinguish fires that had broken out at oil wells in Iraq at the start of 2017.
SOS Aquarius
Elias accompanied the rescue ship Aquarius on its mission in the Mediterranean in early 2016. The ship was trying to save the lives of migrants who were attempting the dangerous crossing to Europe aboard ill-equipped boats. He documented their rescue attempts in his black-and-white series.
Central African Republic
The third series of images was shot in the Central African Republic in 2014, during Elias’s time embedded with a unit of Foreign Legionnaires, whose daily life he documented. A moving visual testimonial arose in the midst of a brutal civil war.
This work is more than a profession – it’s my passion, as well as being a necessity. It requires a level of commitment that comes at the expense of personal comfort and safety. I’m not attracted by the danger but by the opportunity to be where history is being made.
Édouard Elias
Édouard Elias’s work lives and breathes proximity and authenticity. With empathetic perseverance, he delves deeply into topics, places and personal stories – far removed from superficial sensationalism. His photographs tell stories of courage and resilience. They show us people who keep going in the face of adversity. Through personal encounters and his direct participation, evocative images emerge. Images that endure.
As a photographer, I look at my work as a form of storytelling, comparable with arranging words and sentences to convey a story.
Édouard Elias
Exhibition Details:
Dates: Jun 29 – Sep 21 2025
Opening Hours: 10 AM - 6 PM (Everyday)
Venue: Leica Gallery Wetzlar
Am Leitz-Park 5
35578 Wetzlar
About Édouard Elias
Born in Nîmes in 1991, Édouard Elias grew up in Egypt and moved back to France in 2009 where he found his calling as a photographer after dropping out of business school. He already started documenting the plight of Syrian refugees during his studies on his own initiative. He was taken hostage by IS in Syria in 2013 – an experience that both shaped him and honed his eye. Since then, he has been reporting with great empathy from war zones and troubled areas around the world. He prefers using Leica M-Cameras – including the M2, MP, M11-P and M-Monochrom – for his award-winning work.
The exhibition was realised with the kind support of WhiteWall.
Other Interesting Exhibitions in Wetzlar
Leica Gallery Wetzlar
Leica Camera AG Am Leitz-Park 5
35578 Wetzlar
Germania