Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA) at open your eyes

The Leica Oskar Barnack Award is a prize awarded for outstanding photo series. The winners are the photographers whose unerring powers of observation most vividly express the relationship between man and his environment in a series of up to 20 photographs. The photo series will be selected from around 60 nominees from 34 countries.

A panel discussion will focus on what makes an outstanding photo series and how they are put together. On this evening you can expect an exciting exchange about the power of documentary and reportage photography.

Karin Rehn-Kaufmann has been a jury member of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award since 2008 and has been instrumental in shaping and developing the renowned photography prize. In her presentation, Ms Rehn-Kaufmann discusses the aspects under which series are selected.

Gilles Steinmann is the head of photo editing at the NZZ and the LOBA nominator from Switzerland. He explains how he judges a photo series.

Dominic Nahr, the Swiss LOBA Newcomer winner from 2009 and finalist from 2017, gives an insight into his work. Dominic explains how he puts together photo series for awards, publications and exhibitions.

Joined via video: Ana María Arévalo Gosen was awarded the Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA) in 2021 for the moving series Días Eternos. Her pictures were taken in hopelessly overcrowded prisons and pre-trial detention centres in Venezuela and El Salvador. With empathy and visual force, the photographer shows what is lacking here: space, hygiene, medical care, but above all respect and justice.

Karin Rehn-Kaufmann

is Art Director and General Representative for Leica Galleries International and has management responsibility for 26 galleries worldwide. She has successfully curated a large number of international exhibitions and has also been responsible for the Ernst Leitz Museum in Wetzlar since 2019.

Gilles Steinmann

Gilles Steinmann is the head of picture editing at NZZ. He has been a photo editor for over 16 years, has worked for several major Swiss publications and has been involved in covering some of the most historic global news stories. Giles Steinmann is the nominator for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award from Switzerland.

Dominic Nahr

Dominic Nahr is currently one of the most important reportage photographers in Switzerland. For the NZZ, he is currently documenting the war in Ukraine, where he is also engaged as photo editor. His career took him from Hong Kong, where he grew up, to Nairobi and finally to Switzerland.

Ana Maria Arévalo Gosen

was born in 1988 in Caracas, Venezuela and moved to France in 2009. She studied photography at ETPA Toulouse and then worked as a freelance photographer in Hamburg. Since her return to Venezuela in 2017, she has been documenting the crisis in the country, especially from the perspective of women. She currently lives in Bilbao, Spain.

Registration required

Participation is free of charge, but registration is mandatory. Click here to register (you will find the form at the very bottom of the linked page).

Infos

Thursday, 28 September 2023, Kulturhaus Helferei, Kirchgasse 13, 8001 Zürich

6 p.m – 7:30 p.m., a small aperitif will be served afterwards