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Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2025
Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2025
November 10, 2025
Alejandro Cegarra - Winner 2025
The Venezuelan-born, Mexico-based photographer (*1989) travelled to the border region betweenthe United States and Mexico for his long-term project, The Two Walls. In his empathic black and white images, Cegarra focuses primarily on the individual fates of migrants stranded there, highlighting the dramatic situation on the ground. Mexico was once reputed to be a safe haven for asylum seekers, but in more recent years the country has become a staunch partner in the United States’ anti-immigration policy, working to prevent people from moving on to the United States.
Alejandro Cegarra, who was born in Venezuela but currently lives in Mexico, impressed the jury with his series The Two Walls, in which he focuses on the desperate plight of migrants and their families who suffer from the harsh and inhumane conditions at Mexico’s border region.
“I worked from 2018 to January this year, always between the borders. I wanted to focus on universal human emotions. I have taken 35,000 pictures – twenty of them I have selected for the LOBA series,” Cegarra explains.In a separate statement, Karin Rehn-Kaufmann adds, “Alejandro Cegarra’s journey is particularly moving. As a former winner of the Newcomer category, he now returns with The Two Walls – a work with powerful imagery, illustrating the themes of division, migration and human dignity. His rise to the Main category is a first in the history of the award and reveals how photographic voices are growing and becoming more urgent than ever.”
In the Newcomer category, it was, once again, a student of Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts who prevailed. Serghei Duve was born in Chișinău, Moldova, in 1999 and came to Germany when he was just one year old. While documenting his family and their relationships with the internationally unrecognised state of Transnistria, his series Bright Memory reveals how even private matters can be interpreted politically.
As in previous years, there was a lengthy preparation process before the five-member jury was able to enter the final phase of selecting the shortlist and determining the winning series. In the current round, more than 120 photography experts from 50 countries submitted their proposals. Based on their personal knowledge and experience, each nominator selected up to three photo series for the Main category, each comprising 15 to 20 images.
A total of 281 series with 5,351 images by photographers from over 65 countries were shortlisted. The USA, France, and Germany led the country statistics this year with over twenty submissions each, followed by Mexico, Italy, and Canada.The Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award, which has complemented the Main category since 2009 and is directed at photographers under 30 years of age, was determined in collaboration with and based on submissions from 20 international institutions and universities from 17 countries. This time, there were 50 proposals from which the jury selected the Newcomer.
In this year’s edition of the LOBA, several photographers were shortlisted for the second time – and their serious subject matters have lost none of their relevance. LOBA 2025 addresses the problems and issues of contemporary history: the effects of the climate crisis; acts of war and the resulting hardships, especially for civilian victims; the causes and consequences of flight and migration; social exclusion and political repression; but also the exemplary self-empowerment of marginalised groups. On the following pages, we introduce the winning series and the entire shortlist.
Ulrich Rüter“I worked from 2018 to January this year, always between the borders. I wanted to focus on universal human emotions. I have taken 35,000 pictures – twenty of them I have selected for the LOBA series,” Cegarra explains.In a separate statement, Karin Rehn-Kaufmann adds, “Alejandro Cegarra’s journey is particularly moving. As a former winner of the Newcomer category, he now returns with The Two Walls – a work with powerful imagery, illustrating the themes of division, migration and human dignity. His rise to the Main category is a first in the history of the award and reveals how photographic voices are growing and becoming more urgent than ever.”
In the Newcomer category, it was, once again, a student of Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts who prevailed. Serghei Duve was born in Chișinău, Moldova, in 1999 and came to Germany when he was just one year old. While documenting his family and their relationships with the internationally unrecognised state of Transnistria, his series Bright Memory reveals how even private matters can be interpreted politically.
As in previous years, there was a lengthy preparation process before the five-member jury was able to enter the final phase of selecting the shortlist and determining the winning series. In the current round, more than 120 photography experts from 50 countries submitted their proposals. Based on their personal knowledge and experience, each nominator selected up to three photo series for the Main category, each comprising 15 to 20 images.
A total of 281 series with 5,351 images by photographers from over 65 countries were shortlisted. The USA, France, and Germany led the country statistics this year with over twenty submissions each, followed by Mexico, Italy, and Canada.The Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award, which has complemented the Main category since 2009 and is directed at photographers under 30 years of age, was determined in collaboration with and based on submissions from 20 international institutions and universities from 17 countries. This time, there were 50 proposals from which the jury selected the Newcomer.
In this year’s edition of the LOBA, several photographers were shortlisted for the second time – and their serious subject matters have lost none of their relevance. LOBA 2025 addresses the problems and issues of contemporary history: the effects of the climate crisis; acts of war and the resulting hardships, especially for civilian victims; the causes and consequences of flight and migration; social exclusion and political repression; but also the exemplary self-empowerment of marginalised groups. On the following pages, we introduce the winning series and the entire shortlist.
LOBA-Katalog+-
The complete seriesand further information in the LOBA 2024 catalogue that complements the exhibition in Wetzlar. Karin Rehn-Kaufmann (publisher), 118 images, plus Index with 220 pictures, 148 pages, 26 × 20 cm.German and English editions, available via the LFI Shop.
Find more information on the official LOBA website. More
Alejandro Cegarra - Winner 2025
The Venezuelan-born, Mexico-based photographer (*1989) travelled to the border region betweenthe United States and Mexico for his long-term project, The Two Walls. In his empathic black and white images, Cegarra focuses primarily on the individual fates of migrants stranded there, highlighting the dramatic situation on the ground. Mexico was once reputed to be a safe haven for asylum seekers, but in more recent years the country has become a staunch partner in the United States’ anti-immigration policy, working to prevent people from moving on to the United States.
Frederik Rüegger - Shortlist 2025
For two years, the German photographer (*1993) accompanied English and Irish Traveller communities, who are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain their traditional lifestyle. The series I Am a Stranger in This Country provides insight into a life marked by deprivation, fear and worry, but also solidarity and cohesion. Exclusion and discrimination, exacerbated by Brexit, rising nationalism and intensified mis-information and hatred on social media, threaten their freedom. The pictures were taken at horse markets, the last places where Travellers can still celebrate their culture.
Arlette Bashizi - Shortlist 2025
Beyond Numbers is a personal project for the photographer (*1999). It deals with a region in the east of her home country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the harsh impact of the war between M23 rebels and the army. Almost eight million Congolese have been displaced by the war. Bashizi documents life in her community, which has been suffering from the consequences of the conflict in North Kivu since 2021. In doing so, she gives faces to people who would otherwise remain anonymous statistics and draws attention to a conflict that has been overshadowed in the media by other events.
Anastasia Taylor-Lind - Shortlist 2025
The English photographer (*1981) has been reporting on the war in Ukraine for ten years. Togetherwith journalist Alisa Sopova, she documents people’s stories, especially in the Donbas region in the east of the country. This is where the war began in 2014 and has remained particularly devastating ever since.The aim of this impressive long-term project is to show the world what it means to survive day by day amid military violence and threat. The series, 5km from the Frontline, focuses on the destructive effects of war on the environment, which also has consequences for the people.
Lynsey Addario - Shortlist 2025
At the heart of the series “Mom, I Want to Live”– A Young Girl Battles War and Cancer, the American photographer (*1973) traces the fate of a Ukrainian girl diagnosed in 2020 at the age of two, with a rare form of eye cancer. Four years later, Addario documented the girl’s desperate and tenacious struggle to survive, as the normally curable form of cancer could no longer be treated. This tragic story illustrates how the Russian invasion is leaving deep scars on Ukrainian society. Far from the main theatres of war, the series speaks of the turmoil in a country torn apart by suffering.
Stanislav Ostrous - Shortlist 2025
The Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Kherson and Kharkiv are under relentless bombardment. Those who were able to leave villages and towns have done so. The poorest and oldest remained because they were unable to find shelter, have no means of escape or do not want to leave. Shops are closed and electricity is unreliable. Survival depends on volunteers, soldiers, doctors and rescue workers who care for the people in this gray zone. In his black and white series Civilians. The Gray Zone, the Ukrainian photographer (*1972) shows the impact of war for civilian victims in a hopeless situation.
Jodi Windvogel - Shortlist 2025
The series Life Under Occupation – Cissie Gool House by the South African photographer (*1992)focusses on a housing project in a former Cape Town hospital. The building was occupied in 2017 byReclaim the City (RTC) – a social movement fighting for affordable housing – and converted into arefuge for almost 2,000 people. A community emerged that resists the exclusionary urban planning and ongoing injustices existing since Apartheid. The project shows how urban spaces can be reclaimedand highlights the relationship between the people and their environment.
Gideon Mendel - Shortlist 2025
The Deluge series is an attempt by the South African photographer (*1959) to explore the global climate emergency in a personal and systematic way, showing how its impact ignores questions of wealth, class, ethnicity and geography. Since 2007, Mendel has covered floods in thirteen countries worldwide. With an aesthetic reminiscent of portrait painting, he photographs his subjects in front of their homes, impressively showing the consequences of advancing climate change and calling for attention and empathy. He presents direct portraits of those affected – a typology of climate change.
Ivor Prickett - Shortlist 2025
Overshadowed by other events on the world stage, a brutal civil war has been raging in Sudan for over two years. More than 11 million people have been displaced and up to 150,000 killed. Last year, theIrish photographer (*1983) managed to travel to the country on assignment for The New York Times. The motifs in his series War on the Nile – Fragmented Sudan tell the story of one of the world’s greatesthumanitarian disasters. The harrowing images, which focus on people in the humanistic tradition,show the tragedy in the country and the desperate situation of the refugees.
Xiangjie Peng - Shortlist 2025
The Rise of Queer Underground Party Culture in China is a document of self-empowerment despite state-controlled media. Since 2017, the self-taught photographer (*1961) has been documentingqueer communities in various Chinese cities. The images show places where people can express their identities in an open environment. The series was taken mainly in clubs, at parties and competitions, which, despite the restrictions, have become important cultural phenomena for the LGBTQ+ community. As China slowly opens up to international influences, freedom is growing underground.
Youbing Zhan - Shortlist 2025
The Migrant Workers in China’s Assembly Line series presents images between hope and assemblylines, factories and leisure time: around 300 million migrant workers ensure steady economic growthin China. They come from rural provinces to earn money in economically developed regions. In themegacity of Dongguan, where over 70 percent of the inhabitants are migrant workers, Youbing Zhan (*1973) has been documenting the everyday life of the so-called mingong – as a colleague and a self-taught photographer, capturing them in almost casual yet impressive pictures.
Serghei Duve - Newcomer 2025
The Newcomer Award-winning series Bright Memory presents images that capture the feelings described by the Russian phrase svetlaya pamyat – bright memory: everyday life marked by nostalgia anddivision. In his work, the German photographer (*1999), who was born in the Republic of Moldova,describes his family’s close ties to their old homeland of Transnistria, a state that declared independ-ence from the Republic of Moldova in 1990, but which is unrecognised internationally, supported onlyby Russia. A multi-layered series about identity and origin, everyday life and politics.
