The Jury 2024

The international jury of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award this year includes:

Dimitri Beck

Head of the Photo Department of Polka (magazine, gallery, factory) France

Dimitri Beck is a journalist and the Director of Photography at Polka (magazine, gallery, factory) in Paris. As part of the Polka executive management since 2008, he has been contributing to the company's development. Beck gives lectures on photojournalism at conferences and educational institutes; he offers photojournalism courses as part of the Journalism Department of Sciences Po in Paris, and also at the international photo school Speos. He takes part in international photo juries, and for several years ran a weekly radio programme on photography on France Info, one of France's key news radio stations.

From September 2004 to December 2006, prior to working at Polka, Beck was Director of the Aina Photo Agency based in the Afghan capital of Kabul, where he was also the Editor-in-Chief for the Anglo-French feature magazine Les Nouvelles de Kaboul – New Afghanistan. Before this he worked as Editor-in-Chief of Reza Deghati’s photo agency, Webistan.

Portrait: © Pierre Anthony Allard

Per Gylfe

Director of Education at the International Center of Photography (ICP), New York, USA

An alum of ICP’s Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism, One-Year Certificate Program, Gylfe joined ICP in 2001. He held several managerial roles within the institution before assuming his current position in 2015. As a faculty member he has taught a wide range of courses from advanced photography to print critique, offered within the ICP’s Continuing Education and Full-Time programs. Throughout his tenure, Gylfe has developed and implemented numerous educational programs and initiatives and has established important partnerships with various educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and photography corporations. He was instrumental in shaping the design of the innovative educational facilities and organizing the successful transition to ICP’s new permanent home on the vibrant Lower East Side of New York City in 2020.

Portrait: © Ports Bishop

Ciril Jazbec

Photographer, Slovenia

Ciril Jazbec is a Slovenian photographer and film director. His work focuses on communities that are confronted by the effects of globalisation and the climate crisis. In his long-term projects, he aims to raise awareness about the deterioration of our planet and the increasing impact of the climate crisis. His latest multimedia project took him to the Himalayas, the Alps, and the Andes on a quest to understand how people are addressing climate change.

Jazbec studied Management at the Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana before moving to London to study photography. He gained an MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography from the London College of Communication in 2011. His awards include the World Press Photo Award in 2021, the Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award in 2013, Photo Folio Review Les Rencontres d’Arles winner in 2013, Magnum 30 under 30 in 2015, PDN’30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch in 2016, and the Pictures of the Year International World Understanding Award in 2018. In 2023, his film “Dream to Cure Water” won the Jackson Wild Media Awards in the climate stories category.

Jazbec also serves as a board member of the Kranj Foto Fest, an international photo festival in Slovenia.

Portrait: © Benedict Evans

Amélie Schneider

Head of the Picture Editorial Department, Die Zeit, Germany

Amélie Schneider is the Director of Photography at DIE ZEIT, Germany’s biggest weekly newspaper. Under her photo direction, DIE ZEIT received a visual identity award, as the world's best designed newspaper, 2022 and 2023. In her current role, Schneider defines state-of-the-art visual journalism that resonates with a broad audience. Based on sixteen years of professional journalism experience, she has a strong understanding of editing at various levels. Between 2008 and 2018, she developed a nuanced eye for photography and creative visual storytelling as a Photo Editor at NEON magazine, the Stern publication for the younger generation. After that, she became Senior Photo Editor at GEO magazine.
Schneider holds a BFA in Visual Communication from ABKM, Academy of Fine Arts Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Karin Rehn-Kaufmann

Art Director & Chief Representative Leica Galleries International (Austria)

Karin Rehn-Kaufmann studied German Philology and Philosophy at the University of Freiburg. She also holds a diploma from the Eurythmische Hochschule in Stuttgart, where she was subsequently employed as a lecturer from 1982 to 1986.

After ACM Projektentwicklung GmbH, Salzburg, bought into Leica Camera AG in 2005, her long-standing passion for photography led to the opening of the Leica Gallery in Salzburg in 2008. Today, Rehn-Kaufmann is Art Director and Chief Representative of Leica Galleries International and holds management responsibility for the total of 28 Leica Galleries around the world. She has successfully curated numerous prestigious exhibitions including, the “Chinaflug” project, an exhibition showing spectacular aerial photography of China from the 1930s, exhibition concepts for the Leica Gallery at Photokina in 2012, 2014 and 2016, and the “10x10” exhibition on occasion of the “100 years of Leica photography” jubilee. She is responsible for the Ernst Leitz Museum in Wetzlar and curated exhibitions of photographers Werner Bischof, Josef Koudelka, Steve McCurry, Thomas Hoepker and Andy Summers, among others.

Rehn-Kaufmann has been a member of the jury of the Leica Oskar Barnack Awards since 2008, and has played a significant role in the organisation and further development of the prestigious photography competition. She is the editor of the “40 Years of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award” catalogue, and curator of the exhibition with the same title, as well as the annual LOBA presentations at the Ernst Leitz Museum Wetzlar.