LFI Special: LOBA 2024

The two LOBA winners were honoured during a festive ceremony within the framework of the Celebration of Photography. That same evening also saw the opening of the exhibition of the 44th edition of the LOBA, at the Ernst Leitz Museum Wetzlar, which presents the winning series as well as the other ten shortlisted series.

Born in Italy in 1974 and currently based in Switzerland, it was Davide Monteleone and his Critical Minerals - Geography of Energy series that convinced the jury. Using the examples of copper, lithium and cobalt extraction in Chile, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia, he questions the complex geopolitical, social and ecological consequences of today’s international energy industry, which is focussing on renewability. His multi-layered series reveals landscapes and industrial complexes, though the people working there are central to the project.

Born in Moldova in 1996, the photographer Maria Guțu has been granted the LOBA in the Newcomer category (for young photographers up to 30 years in age), for her very personal series, Homeland. The poetic, visual narrative questions her own roots, as well as home in a country that has been abandoned by around a quarter of its population in the last twenty years.

The two winning series were selected from about 250 submissions, which were put forward to the LOBA jury by over 80 photography experts from the international photography scene, from about 50 countries. The LOBA is one of the most highly endowed and prestigious awards in the field of photography: the winner receives 40,000 euros and Leica camera equipment worth 10,000 euros, while the winner of the Newcomer Award receives 10,000 euros and a Leica Q3.

Further information on the LOBA website.