Shortlist 2020

The shortlist candidates for the internationally-renowned Leica Oskar Barnack Award photo competition, granted this year for the 40th time, are set.

Emil Gataullin – Mezen: By Sky’s Edge

Emil Gataullin – Mezen: By Sky’s Edge

They live in the past, on the edge of the sky: Emil Gataullin’s series took him into the Russian province to observe the daily life of people living along the banks of the Mezen. Nothing seems to have changed there for centuries – a journey into a time believed lost forever.

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Namhun Sung – Red Island

Namhun Sung – Red Island

The massacre that first began on the South Korean island of Jeju, on April 3, 1948, was kept secret for a long time. Thousands of local people were killed, during an uprising against the local government instituted by the US Army. By using large and damaged Polaroids for his pictures, the Korean photographer chose an unusual form and imagery for this series, dedicated to the island’s grim history.

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Anastasia Taylor-Lind – 5km from the Frontline

Anastasia Taylor-Lind – 5km from the Frontline

Her approach to this series is cautious and gentle, Anastasia Taylor-Lind explains. With this attitude, she has travelled and continues to travel regularly to Ukraine; she visits the same families, spending time and listening to them. The resulting images reflect closeness and life – even though the story unfolds in the shadow of war.

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Matthew Abbott – Black Summer

Matthew Abbott – Black Summer

From June 2019 to March 2020, devastating bush fires raged in Australia. After taking a crash course at the fire brigade in Sydney, Matthew Abbott returned, time and again, to the heart of the fire zones. He was not aiming to capture new images of the fires, but rather to document the consequences of the catastrophe. His motifs speak of panic, stoicism and tragedy.

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Davide Monteleone – Sinomocene

Davide Monteleone – Sinomocene

His work springs from interests that transcend his passion for photography. Using the example of China, Davide Monteleone’s series presents multi-layered images that reveal the global consequences of economic expansion.

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Maïmouna Guerresi – Beyond the Border: A Journey to Touba

Maïmouna Guerresi – Beyond the Border: A Journey to Touba

The multi-media artist creates metaphors to express the spiritual connections between people and all that is. With her “Beyond the Border: A Journey to Touba” series, she places the emphasis on people and their relationship to the environment, conveying a strong message in the process: we have to find a new way of dealing with each other.

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Giovanni Cocco – Displacement: New Town No Town

Giovanni Cocco – Displacement: New Town No Town

Giovanni Cocco condenses documentary subjects and transforms them into touching metaphors. His “Displacement: New Town No Town” series is dedicated to L’Aquila in Abruzzo, Italy, a town destroyed by an earthquake in 2009. The ruins were rapidly cleared away and temporary housing built – for the inhabitants, the only thing that remains of their old home town is the memories. Cocco does not document the devastation, but rather questions what it is that makes a town a place worth living in.

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Vincent Fournier – Space Project

Vincent Fournier – Space Project

In his series, which has been in production since 2007, the French photographer covers the story of space exploration from its very beginnings to futuristic projects, such as the NASA Space Launch System (SLS) that aims to reach Mars. His pictures open up an exciting discussion about the future meaning and uses of space.

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Hashem Shakeri – Cast Out of Heaven

Hashem Shakeri – Cast Out of Heaven

He sees himself as a documentarist of change: with “Cast Out of Heaven”, Hashem Shakeri deals with questions of exile and alienation. The series is the second part of a trilogy dedicated to contemporary humanity.

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Cristina de Middel – Journey to the Center

Cristina de Middel – Journey to the Center

With a mixture of real and fictional elements, which she describes as “expanded documentary”, Cristina de Middel develops images that encourage reflection in the viewer. Her photographic essay “Journey to the Center”, in which she investigates phenomena related to the migration route through Mexico, has an atmosphere and symbolism inspired by Jules Verne’s well-known novel “Journey to the Center of the Earth”.

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Ragnar Axelsson – Arctic Heroes

Ragnar Axelsson – Arctic Heroes

The Icelandic photographer considers the Greenlandic sled dogs to be among the greatest heroes ever known in the northern reaches. Shot in black and white, his series is a homage to both the dogs and to the Arctic way of life, that is threatened with extinction by the devastating effects of global warming.

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Lindokuhle Sobekwa – Daleside (Newcomer)

Lindokuhle Sobekwa – Daleside (Newcomer)

The South African photographer explored the small town of Daleside, to the south of Johannesburg, and adopted the town’s name as the title of his photo project. In this series, he questions his memories and perceptions; and photographs houses from both the outside, as well as the inside – something that would have been impossible in the Apartheid era. His pictures document the transformation of a community formerly occupied exclusively by white people.

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Sharon Pulwer – God Fearing Women (Newcomer)

Sharon Pulwer – God Fearing Women (Newcomer)

The photographer’s long-term project documents the lives of women belonging to the Chabad- Lubavitch Movement (Chabad), a Hasidic Jewish community in the Crown Heights neighbourhood of Brooklyn, New York. As an observer, Pulwer explores experiences of femininity and motherhood within a strict orthodox setting. The outcome is an intimate glimpse into a parallel world, caught between security and isolation, the past and the future.

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Hugh Kinsella Cunningham – Wildfire (Ebola Amidst Conflict), (Newcomer)

Hugh Kinsella Cunningham – Wildfire (Ebola Amidst Conflict), (Newcomer)

In 2019, the Ebola virus spread like wildfire through North Kivu, a region of the Congo beset by militia groups. Hugh Kinsella Cunningham, a candidate for the Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award, documented the outbreak and brought it to global attention.

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Fabiola Ferrero – The Blue Side of Fire (Newcomer)

Fabiola Ferrero – The Blue Side of Fire (Newcomer)

In her series “The Blue Side of Fire”, the Venezuelan photographer takes an indirect approach to exploring the on-going decline of her, once wealthy, homeland. She contrasts the current crisis with poetic moments of everyday life, and the beauty and magic of the countryside.

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George Voronov – We Became Everything (Newcomer)

George Voronov – We Became Everything (Newcomer)

Feeling, rather than seeing: the Irish photographer’s series aims to encourage others to acknowledge and experience the spiritual worlds of his protagonists. It is a journey into the mysterious realm between reality and non-reality.

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