The Leica Oskar Barnack Award and the Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award are open for entries. The Leica Oskar Barnack Award is announced for the 31st time, and accepts photo essays from professional photographers until 15 March. The award is given by an international jury “to photographers whose unerring powers of observation capture and express the relationship between man and the environment in the most graphic form in a sequence of a minimum of 10 up to a maximum of 12 images”. The winner of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award will receive 5,000 euros or, alternatively, Leica camera equipment to the same value. Also, a Newcomers Award will be incorporated in the competition, open to all (prospective) pros who are aged 25 years and under. The winner of the Newcomer Award will receive 2,500 euros.

Website: Leica Oskar Barnack Award

Leica Press Release

Invitation to submit entries for the 2010 ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Award’ competition

Leica Camera AG is inviting entries to its international photography competition for professional photographers, the ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Award’. Applications are now being accepted online at www.leica-oskar-barnack-award.com, and the closing date is 15 March 2010. The competition also includes a ‘Newcomer Award’, which addresses all prospective professional photographers aged 25 and under.

An international judging panel awards the ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Award’ and ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award’ to photographers whose powers of observation capture and express the relationship between man and the environment in the most graphic form in a sequence of ten to twelve images. Entry submissions must be a self-contained series of images in which the photographer perceives and documents the interaction between man and the environment with acute vision and contemporary visual style – creative, groundbreaking and unintrusive.

All photo series submitted will be displayed in a dedicated online gallery on Leica’s web site. The winner of the ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Award’ prize receives 5,000 Euro or Leica camera equipment to the same value. The winner of the Newcomer Award receives 2,500 Euro. The prizes will be presented during the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie photographic festival held in Arles, France. Further information, terms and conditions for entering and specific requirements for submissions are available on the Leica web site at www.leica-oskar-barnack-award.com.

Competition history:

Oskar Barnack (1879–1936), inventor of the Leica camera, increasingly used the prototype he developed in 1914 (today known as the Ur-Leica) for photography. He captured various events as a series of photographs and became one of the earliest photographers to document the relationship between man and the environment. For instance, his photography of the floods in Wetzlar in 1920 is now considered to be the first ever reportage series shot with a 35mm still film camera.

The competition named after this photographic pioneer was first awarded in 1979, on the 100th anniversary of Oskar Barnack’s birth.

Previous winners of the competition are:

1980 Floris Bergkamp, Alkmaar (NL)

1981 Björn Larsson, Stockholm (S)

1982 Wendy Watriss, Houston (USA)

1983 Neil McGahee, St. Paul (USA)

1984 Stormi Greener, Minneapolis (USA)

1985 Sebastiao Salgado, Aimores (BR)

1986 David C. Turnley, Detroit (USA)

1987 Jeff Share, Sherman Oakes (USA)

1988 Chris Steele-Perkins, London (GB)

1989 Charles Mason, Fairbanks (USA)

1990 Raphael Gaillarde, Paris (F)

1991 Barry Lewis, London (GB)

1992 Sebastiao Salgado, Aimores (BR)

1993/94 Eugene Richards, New York (USA)

1995 Gianni Berengo-Gardin, Milano (I)

1996 Larry Towell, Bothwell (C)

1997 Jane Evelyn Atwood, New York (USA)

1998 Fabio Ponzio, Roma (I)

1999 Claudine Doury, Pantin (F)

2000 Luc Delahaye, Paris (F)

2001 Bertrand Meunier, Paris (F)

2002 Narelle Autio, Sydney (AUS)

2003 Andrea Hoyer, New York (USA)

2004 Peter Granser, Stuttgart (D)

2005 Guy Tillim, Johannesburg (RSA)

2006 Tomas Munita, Santiago de Chile (RCH)

2007 Julio Bittencourt, Sao Paulo (BR)

2008 Lucia Nimcova, Humenne (SK)

2009 Mikhael Subotzky, Cape Town (ZA)

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