The shortlist of the 2026 Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA) photography competition has been revealed! 12 finalists have been selected by an international jury alongside the winner of the newly established LOBA Women Grant. Winners of the Main Prize, Newcomer Award and the LOBA Women Grant will be revealed on 8th October 2026.
For the 46th time, Leica Camera AG is honouring exceptional photographers who capture the relationship between human beings and our environment with the LOBA awards, chosen through a multi-stage selection process. All of the shortlisted image series can now be found here.
The Main Prize winner will be awarded €40,000 and Leica camera equipment worth €10,000, while the winner of the Newcomer Award will receive €10,000 and a Leica Q3. All LOBA series will be presented in a large exhibition at the Ernst Leitz Museum until the 4th of February 2027 and in a comprehensive accompanying catalogue. Following the show in Wetzlar, the 2026 LOBA exhibition will be displayed at various Leica Galleries and featured at photography festivals.
The 2026 LOBA jury is made up of the following members: Jane’a Johnson (Scholar and Curator, Curatorial Assistant, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA), Celina Lunsford (Artistic Director and Curator of the FFF, Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, Germany), Paolo Pellegrin
(Photographer, Italy), Gu Zheng (Professor, Fudan University School of Journalism, Shanghai, China) and Karin Rehn-Kaufmann (Art Director and Chief Representative of Leica Galleries International, Austria).
The jury selected the shortlist based on candidates nominated by over 130 photography experts across 48 countries, with each nominator selecting up to three photo series based on their personal expertise and experience. The Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award is bestowed in collaboration
with 28 international institutions and universities from 18 countries.
Here are just some of the wonderful images from the shortlisted series:
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Do you want to win some great prizes for your photography? Enter your photos in our International Amateur Photographer of the Year competition. Free entry for photographers aged 13-21.
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