The LOBA 2021 Exhibition at the Ernst Leitz Museum Wetzlar
Both the winners and finalists for the 2021 Leica Oskar Barnack Award will be on display until February 27, 2022.
For those who have not yet had the opportunity to see the shortlisted series for this year’s LOBA, we would like to give you a small glimpse into the elaborate exhibition at the Ernst Leitz Museum. In addition to Ana María Arévalo Gosen’s “Días Eternos” series, that earned her the main award, and the “Kolyma – Along the Road of Bones” series, for which Emile Ducke won the Newcomer Award, all the other eleven finalists are also on display.
The exhibition offers the visitor a fascinating tour. Each individual series has been granted a complete wall, and allocated a unique background colour. Presented in different sizes and hung in a diversified manner, the pictures from each series unfold their own visual potential, while also establishing associative correspondences with the other positions.
As varied as the imagery of each individual photographer may be, together they create a convincing and multi-faceted kaleidoscope, and deliver exciting insights into contemporary photography. The LOBA series all have social relevance: they deal with the dramatic upheavals of our times, reporting on the flight of refugees, displacement, the destruction of landscapes and the environment, and the climate crisis; even the Corona pandemic is the subject of one of the series. It is evident that all the pictures perfectly into the LOBA story, where the relationship of humanity to its environment has been one of the essential criteria, since the competition was first launched, back in 1979.
Therefore, the current LOBA exhibition – that runs until February 27, 2022 – offers a perfect opportunity to discover the latest in contemporary photojournalism and engaged photography.
The exhibition was kindly supported by WhiteWall.