Call for Entries: Leica Oskar Barnack Award

In our efforts to provide items of interest to black & white photographers, we present the following unedited press release:

Leica Press Release

January 2008 - Leica Camera AG announces new “Leica Oskar Barnack Award“ and “Leica European Publishers Award for Photography” photo competitions in 2008

Leica Camera AG, Solms is now inviting entries for its next international “Leica Oskar Barnack Award“ (deadline January 31, 2008) and “Leica European Publishers Award for Photography” (deadline March 21, 2008) competitions for professional photographers. The entry forms can be downloaded as pdf files at http://www.leica-camera.com in the Culture section.

The annual Leica Oskar Barnack Award is given to the photographer whose sure powers of observation most vividly express man’s relationship to his environment in a single photograph or photo story consisting of minimum 8 up to 12 pictures. The competition is held in memory of the inventor of the Leica, Oskar Barnack (1879 – 1936), who took more and more photographs from 1914 onwards with his prototype, today called the Ur-Leica. The history of photo reportage is closely linked to his invention, as the handy and mobile Leica cameras available from 1925 enabled new forms of expression in photography.

Either of 35 mm slide copies or enlargements may be submitted (min. 7 x 9 inches, max. 9 x 11 inches). To qualify, entries must either be series of photos taken in 2007 or long-term projects with at least some of the photos dating from 2007. The winner will receive 5,000 Euros or a Leica camera of the same value. Entries should be marked “Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2007“ and sent to: Leica Camera AG, Oskar-Barnack-Straße 11 in D- 35606 Solms, Germany.

The “Leica European Publishers Award for Photography” has been one of the culture projects of Leica Camera AG ever since it was first conferred in 1994. This annual photographic award is one of the most prestigious photo book prizes in Europe. To be eligible for entry, photo projects must be completed, unpublished and in the form of a book. The winner’s project is published in a circulation of 5000 copies by the participating publishers in their particular country and language.

The ‘European Publishers Award for Photography’ is now in its fourteenth year. The prizewinners so far were Dario Mitidieri – “The Children of Bombay’ (1994), Shanto Rao – ‘Pictures of Women’ (1995), Bruce Gilden – ‘Haiti’ (1996), Tony Catany ‘Photographs’ (1997), Dean Chapman ‘Karenni – Guerilla in Burma’ (1998), Jeff Mermelstein – ‘Sidewalk’ (1999), Alfons Alt ‚Bestiae’ (2000), David Farrell ‘Innocent Landscapes’ (2001), Simon Norfolk ‘Afghanistan‘(2002), Haris Kakarouhas ‘Buena Vista Cuba’(2003), Harri Hallio, ‘The Dodo & Mauritius Island: IMAGINARY ENCOUNTERS’ (2004), Lorenzo Castore ‘Paradiso’ (2005) and Ambroise Tézenas ‘Peking’ (2006) and Paolo Pellegrin ,As I Was Dying’ (2007).

Call for Entries: Leica Oskar Barnack Award