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Hall Of Fame Award - Zwycięzcy
"Leica Hall of Fame Award" to podtrzymanie tradycji wynikającej z wcześniejszych nagród nadawanych przez Leica Camera AG w celu uhonorowania wybitnych fotografów. Nagroda jest przyznawana fotografom, którzy przyczynili się dla naszej marki oraz dziedzinie fotografii. Wyróżnienie to jest przyznawane sporadycznie, bez organizowania konkursu i powoływania jury.
Photographers honored with the Leica Hall of Fame Award
Herlinde Koelbl
Herlinde Koelbl was born on 31st October 1939 in Lindau. After first studying fashion, it was in the mid seventies that she discovered photography as her creative medium of expression. She subsequently began to work on assignments for magazines, as well as creating an enormously productive series of publications of her own long-term photographic projects, which were often accompanied by interviews. Some of the projects also resulted in documentary films. Her sensitive and often philosophical interviews appeared regularly in the ZEITmagazin. Her 35mm-range work was primarily carried out with Leica cameras, and her medium format with a Hasselblad. Koelbl has published more than 20 photo books and has received numerous awards, including the Medal of Excellence (1987), the Dr Erich Salomon Prize of the DGPh (2001), the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2009) and the Bavarian Order of Merit (2013). She lives and works in Neuried near Munich.
10 New York City, USA 1999 © Elliott Erwitt_MAGNUM PHOTOS
Elliott Erwitt
“I don't take pictures of dogs. To me, dogs are people.”
Elliott Erwitt is considered one of the world's best-known photographers (1928 - 2023). His works, which are mostly in black and white feature not only prominent personalities but also memorable moments in contemporary history, are considered modern masterpieces of photography. As a self-confessed dog fan, the four-legged friends also play a special role in his photographic work. The subtle humor in many of his images is Elliott Erwitt's trademark. He was born in Paris on July 26, 1928, the son of Russian immigrants, and spent his childhood in Milan. In 1939 the family emigrated, via France, to the USA. The passionate cosmopolitan returned again and again to the metropolis on the Seine, the scene of some of his first photographic excursions in the 1940s and the founding headquarters of the Magnum - always with his Leica.
Ralph Gibson
“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.
Walter Vogel
Walter Vogel – his repertoire of subjects is diverse, and his style is unmistakeable. Whether as a chronicler of the social background of the Ruhr Region, a cosmopolitan travel photographer, an avid fan of the circus, a nighthawk of the cabaret and night club scene or a lover of espresso coffee: the experienced eye and perfect precision with which he documents his times in unforgettable images is instantly recognisable.
Although Walter Vogel is today seen as one of Germany’s greatest reportage photographers, his way to photography, or rather the courage he showed in making a profession out of his passion for photography, began at a relatively late period in his life. Despite having discovered his interest in photography in his youth, he concentrated on his education and later worked for many years as an engineer in the chemicals industry. He diligently saved the money he earned during his apprenticeship as a machine fitter and, by 1954, was already able to afford a Leica IIf.
His profession took a new direction at the age of thirty: Vogel enrolled to study photography under Otto Steinert at the Folkwangschule in Essen. He began work as a freelance photographer after completing his exams and, alongside advertising and fashion photography, magazine photography then became one of the mainstays of his work. With his first self-published book (For Sale, 1980), Vogel discovered a new role, as the author of the text accompanying his pictures. His espresso book, published in 1993, marked his breakthrough in the world of publishing. Although this project was also uncommissioned, Vogel’s instinct for the subject subsequently triggered a whole series of publications about the world of coffee – long before it became a lifestyle trend. A multitude of photo books reflecting the entire spectrum of his work has since been published. With a visual language characterised by authenticity, precision and sometimes by sublime humour, Vogel is one of the great German photographers of the analogue age – the Leica Hall of Fame Award expresses and confirms the appreciation and recognition of the photographer and his work over a period of more than fifty years.
Jürgen Schadeberg
Whether we take his picture of singer Miriam Makeba at the microphone or his world famous photo of Nelson Mandela looking through the bars of his former prison cell as examples, we see that Jürgen Schadeberg has never lost his humanistic view of the world. Many of his pictures have become timeless icons. On 15 November 2018, Jürgen Schadeberg was honoured with the Leica Hall of Fame Award for his lifework spanning more than seventy years, his untiring, courageous and equally outstanding engagement as a photographer.
Jürgen Schadeberg was born in Berlin in 1931. From 1946, he visited the ‘Schule für Optik und Phototechnik’ in the city and went on to work for the Deutsche Presseagentur (dpa - German Press Agency) in Hamburg. In 1950, he emigrated to South Africa. He worked for Drum Magazine, the most important forum for the black majority of the population in South Africa, until 1959. He worked in Europe and the USA from 1964, also as a lecturer at various universities. He returned to South Africa in 1985 and lived there until 2007. Today, Jürgen Schadeberg lives with his wife in Spain.
Bruce Davidson
In June 2018, Leica Camera AG will be honouring Bruce Davidson for his lifework with a place in the Leica Hall of Fame – an accolade for an exceptional photographer whose photography has changed the world and touched hearts everywhere.
Bruce Davidson, born 5 September 1933 in Illinois, lives in New York City and began taking photographs at the age of ten. In his last year at high school, he won first prize in the animal life category of the Kodak National High School Photographic Award. He studied photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology from 1951 to 1954 and, after graduation, began work as a darkroom technician at Eastman Kodak. He went on to study at the Yale University School of Design, and graduated from there in 1955. He has been a full member of Magnum since 1959. His first solo exhibition opened at the MOMA New York in 1963. His began his project ‘East 100th Street’ in 1966. He has already been honoured with numerous awards and prizes.
Gianni Berengo Gardin
The lifework of Gianni Berengo Gardin, probably the most highly acclaimed Italian photographer of the post-war years, was honoured with the Leica Hall of Fame Award by Leica Camera AG in Rome on 15 November 2017.
Gianni Berengo Gardin was born in Santa Margherita (Liguria) on 10 October 1930 and spent his childhood in Rome. After the end of World War II, he and his family moved to Venice. Berengo Gardin, an amateur photographer since the early years of his youth, decided to make his career in professional photography and worked as a photojournalist for the magazine Il Mondo until 1965. After moving to Milan in 1964, he set up a studio for fashion, advertising and still life photography. Berengo Gardin has published around 200 books and has been awarded numerous prizes for his work, among them, the Prix Brassaï in 1990 and the Leica Oskar Barnack Award in 1995.
Joel Meyerowitz
The acclaimed photographer Joel Meyerowitz was honoured for his lifework with the Leica Hall of Fame Award and a major exhibition in the course of the ‘A Celebration of Photography’ event held by Leica Camera AG on 18 January 2017.
Joel Meyerowitz was born in New York in 1938 and grew up in the Bronx. He studied painting and initially worked as an advertising art director. Meyerowitz began shooting on 35 mm colour film in 1962. In the following year, he alternated this with black-and-white before returning to the richness of storytelling in colour. New York always remained the dominant focus of his life as a photographer – from his early works from the 1960s to his evocative images taken at Ground Zero in the aftermath of 9/11. Meyerowitz lives and works in New York and Tuscany.
Ara Güler
The lifework of the famous Magnum photographer Ara Güler was honoured with the Leica Hall of Fame Award and his photography was celebrated by a major exhibition in the Leica Masters of Photography Gallery in the course of photokina 2016.
Ara Güler, arguably Turkey’s most eminent photographer, impressively portrayed life in the city of Istanbul, his birthplace and home, for over 60 years. He is world famous for his incomparable black-and-white images of the metropolis on the shores of the Bosporus from the 1950s and 1960s. Ara Güler (87) is also well known for his work as a reporter and photojournalist covering political affairs around the world and for his photographic interviews with many prominent politicians and artists of the period, for instance Salvador Dalí, Marc Chagall, Alfred Hitchcock, Willy Brandt, Maria Callas, Bertrand Russell, Pablo Picasso, Indira Gandhi and Winston Churchill.
Thomas Hoepker
Leica Camera AG, this year is not only celebrating 100 years of Leica photography, but also the 60th birthday of its legendary Leica M rangefinder system, honoured Thomas Hoepker with the Leica Hall of Fame Award as a Leica M photographer who captured people and events of contemporary history and for his decisive contribution to the genre of reportage photography in the second half of the 20th century. In 1962, he started as a photographer traveling the world and since then has captured moments of international stature that still impress today. For instance the portrait of the boxer Muhammed Ali and the world-famous picture of the burning World Trade Center. With the group of young, seemingly carefree people in the foreground, it became a synonym for trauma overnight.
René Burri
René Burri pochodzi z Szwajcarii. Jest jednym z najbardziej uznanych i cenionych fotografów w XX i XXI wieku. Stworzył sugestywne zdjęcia Berlina sprzed i po upadku muru, jak również nieśmiertelne portrety takich osób jak Picasso, Giacometti, Le Corbusier, Che Guevara i wielu innych. Jego zdjęcia stanowią cenny dokument współczesnej historii. 26 czerwca 2013 roku, Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, przewodniczący rady nadzorczej Leica Camera AG, przed liczną publicznością zaproszoną przez Leica Camera AG oraz Szkołę Artystyczną w Zurychu zaprezentował Leikę Monochrom fotografowi Magnum - René Burri.
Nick Út
Podczas targów photokina 2012, Wietnamski fotoreporter Nick Út został uhonorowany wyróżnieniem Leica Hall of Fame Award. Jest on twórcą jednego z najbardziej znanych zdjęć wojennych w historii. Wykonał je 8 czerwca 1972 roku, kilka minut po zrzuceniu czterech bomb z napalmem na miasto Trang Bang. Przerażone ofiary z Wietnamu, wliczając w to krzyczące dzieci oraz nagą, mocno poparzoną od wybuchu bomby - 9-letnią ofiarę napalmu Kim Phuc -biegnącą w stronę fotografa. Nick Út uchwycił ten moment za pomocą swojej Leiki M2, jego zdjęcie przyczyniło się do ożywienia ruchu antywojennego i ostatecznie otrzymał nagrodę Pulitzera.
Barbara Klemm
Klemm od wielu lat jest fotografem prasowym FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). W swojej pracy głównie zajmuje się reportażem, fotografią dokumentalną oraz wydarzeniami politycznymi, ekonomicznymi i społecznymi. Dr Andreas Kaufmann, przewodniczący rady nadzorczej Leica Camera AG, zauważa, że jej portrety są pełne szacunku dla fotografowanych osób i sytuacji. Barbara Klemm jest fotografem godnym naśladowania, a zdjęcia jakie tworzy przy pomocy swojej Leiki, sprawiają że zasługuje na wyróżnienie "Leica Hall of Fame Award". Klemm potrafi zatrzymać na materiale światłoczułym istotę momentu, niezależnie czy są to studenckie ruchy, zimna wojna, czy upadek muru berlińskiego.
Steve McCurry
Od ponad 30 lat, urodzony w 1950 roku, McCurry nieustannie podróżuje i dokumentuje światowe konflikty. Za swoje fotografie uzyskał wiele nagród, a dokument o Sowieckiej inwazji na Afganistan przyniósł mu międzynarodową sławę. Wśród wielu wydarzeń jakie sfotografował znajdują się: wojna irańsko iracka, wojna w zatoce perskiej oraz w Jugosławii. Wysyłał też raporty z Libanu, Tybetu, Jemenu i Kambodży. Jego najsłynniejszym zdjęciem jest "Afgańska dziewczynka" Sharbat Gula. Zdjęcie to wykonał w obozie dla uchodźców w 1984 roku. Od 1986 Steve McCurry jest członkiem agencji fotograficznej Magnum.
@Herlinde Koelbl
Od 2021 roku Leica Camera AG wybiera Leica Picture of the Year, które jest wykonane przez wybitnych fotografów związanych z marką, i którzy zostali włączeni do Leica Hall of Fame. Do tej pory 13 renomowanych fotografów zostało uhonorowanych nagrodą Leica Hall of Fame. Aby podzielić się częścią tego sukcesu ze wszystkimi entuzjastami Leiki, każde Leica Picture of the Year będzie oferowany wyłącznie w 29 galeriach Leica na całym świecie. Te limitowane edycje dają zarówno kolekcjonerom, jak i przyjaciołom Leiki, szansę na stworzenie wyjątkowej serii wspaniałych zdjęć.