Leica honoured photographers Terje Abusdal and Sergey Melnitchenko with the prestigious Leica Oskar Barnack Award and Leica Oskar Barnack Award Newcomer, respectively. before an audience of approximately 300 guests in Berlin’s Saint Elisabeth church at an exclusive reception on September 13^th. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, Abusdal’s series Slash & Burn creates a mystical and expressive portrait of the Forest Finns, a Norwegian ethnic minority group that leads a life in close touch with nature.  As the winner of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award, Abusdal was presented with a cash prize of €25,000 (approximately $30,000) and Leica M-System (a camera and lens) valued at an additional €10,000. Meanwhile, Ukrainian photographer Sergey Melnitchenko was honored with the Newcomer Award for up-and-coming professional photographers aged 25 or younger for his portfolio entitled Behind the Scenes. The winning portfolio is a series of images captured behind the scenes in a Chinese nightclub that tells the stories of everyday life for dancers, with all the rough edges of show business including, bruised and battered legs, scratches and scars, feet raw from dancing, and laddered stockings in the light of make-up mirrors. For his award-winning portfolio, Melnitchenko was presented with a cash prize of €10,000 as well as a Leica rangefinder camera and lens.

Leica Press Release

Leica Camera Honors Leica Oskar Barnack Award Winners at Gala Event in Berlin

Photographers Terje Abusdal and Sergey Melnitchenko Presented with Cash Prizes and Leica Equipment for their Standout Portfolios

September 25, 2017 - Leica Camera honored photographers Terje Abusdal and Sergey Melnitchenko with the prestigious Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA) and Leica Oskar Barnack Award Newcomer, respectively, before an audience of approximately 300 guests in Berlin’s Saint Elisabeth church at an exclusive reception on September 13^th. The winners were chosen by an international jury of experts from over 2,700 portfolios of photographs submitted for the competition. This year, the long-established, international award was presented for the 37th time at a formal gala event hosted by Till Brönner, the acclaimed jazz trumpeter and accomplished Leica photographer.

This year’s main award went to Norwegian photographer Terje Abusdal for his series titled “Slash & Burn”. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, Abusdal’s images create a mystical and expressive portrait of the Forest Finns, a Norwegian ethnic minority group that leads a life in close touch with nature.  As the winner of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award, Abusdal was presented with a cash prize of 25,000 euros (approximately $30,000 USD) and Leica M-System (a camera and lens) valued at an additional 10,000 euros (approximately $12,000 USD).

Meanwhile, Ukrainian photographer Sergey Melnitchenko was honored with the Newcomer Award for up-and-coming professional photographers aged 25 or younger for his portfolio titled “Behind the Scenes.” The winning portfolio is a series of images captured behind the scenes in a Chinese nightclub that tells the stories of everyday life for dancers, with all the rough edges of show business including, bruised and battered legs, scratches and scars, feet raw from dancing, and laddered stockings in the light of make-up mirrors. For his award-winning portfolio, Melnitchenko was presented with a cash prize of 10,000 euros as well as a Leica rangefinder camera and lens.

The additional ten finalists also attended the gala and were given the opportunity to present their portfolios to the audience. Each of these ten finalists was also honored with a cash prize of 2,500 euros (approximately $3,000 USD) for their stunning work.

“The legendary photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson once said: ‘Photography is putting one's head, one's eye and one's heart on the same axis.’ With their work, the winners and the ten finalists have proved that they possess this talent. By remaining detached and simultaneously getting close to their subjects, they capture people and places that would possibly otherwise remain hidden to us forever”, said Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, Director General of Leica Galerien International and a permanent member of the jury, congratulating the winners and finalists at the awards ceremony. 

The portfolios of the winners and finalists can be seen from September 14 through October 15 in a major exhibition in the ‘Neue Schule für Fotografie’, Brunnenstrasse 188-190, 10119 Berlin. The LOBA Catalogue 2017 has also been published to accompany the exhibition and presents the winners and finalists in detail with interviews and a comprehensive gallery of their images.

Additionally, the work of the two winners will be exhibited in the Grand Palais at Paris Photo, the largest international fair for art photography, from November 9-12. Following this presentation, the winning portfolios of the LOBA and the portfolios of the ten other finalists will travel to the Photolux Festival in Lucca, Italy, where they can be seen from November 18 to December 10. Additional exhibitions of these standout photographs will follow at the Leica Galleries.  

For additional information, please visit: www.leica-oskar-barnack-award.com.

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