Shortlist 2021

The shortlist candidates for the internationally-renowned Leica Oskar Barnack Award photo competition, granted this year for the 41st time, are set.

Nichole Sobecki – Where Our Land Was

Nichole Sobecki – Where Our Land Was

The consequences of advancing climate change are already more than evident in Somalia. After researching a historic archive of images, Nichole Sobecki went on to document the severe changes that are denying a safe future for the people of the Horn of Africa.

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Kiliii Yuyan – Rumors of Arctic Belonging

Kiliii Yuyan – Rumors of Arctic Belonging

Alive, dying and being reborn; rather than freezing cold and unchanging: this reflects the LOBA nominee’s multi-coloured vision of the essence and richness of the northern reaches. With minimised and impressive images, his series speaks of the everyday lives of indigenous people in the Arctic – an existence in harmony with nature.

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Ranita Roy – Standing on the Edge (Newcomer)

Ranita Roy – Standing on the Edge (Newcomer)

In the last two years alone, India has been hit by four tropical storms, known as cyclones. Young Indian photographer Ranita Roy documented the aftermath of these catastrophes on the everyday lives of people on the West Bengal coast. Her sensitive images speak less about the destruction, and more about how the victims come to terms with their fates.

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Gabriele Galimberti – The Ameriguns

Gabriele Galimberti – The Ameriguns

With his “The Ameriguns” project, Gabriele Galimberti delves into a unique and abysmal area of American life. Reinforced with objects, his portraits illustrate the widespread gun fetishism in a country that counts more firearms than inhabitants. The photographer does not aim to draw the attention to the maverick, but rather to the average citizen.

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Santi Palacios – On the Edge

Santi Palacios – On the Edge

The Spanish photographer has been documenting the refugee movement, accompanying those fleeing, as they follow routes across the Mediterranean that link Africa and the Middle East to Europe. With powerful scenes and colours, his dramatic images reveal the degree of suffering, pain and misery that is the result of political irresponsibility.

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Tom Hegen – Coal Mining Germany (Newcomer)

Tom Hegen – Coal Mining Germany (Newcomer)

The German aerial photographer produced this series, dedicated to the largest brown coal district in the east of Germany, last year. Taken from on high, Hegen's pictures reveal the surprising beauty, brilliant colours and fascinating symmetry of the desolate landscape. From this perspective, both the devastating consequences to the countryside and the complex relationship between humanity and the environment are brought into sharp focus.

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Ingmar Björn Nolting – About the Days Ahead (Newcomer)

Ingmar Björn Nolting – About the Days Ahead (Newcomer)

The Corona virus disease started spreading through Germany as of mid-March, 2020. Shortly afterwards, Ingmar Björn Nolting began a road trip. He travelled 25,000 kilometres up and down the Republic, capturing emotional scenes with his camera from a country in a state of emergency. His pictures appear like fading memories – both personal and iconic.

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Enri Canaj – Say Goodbye Before You Leave

Enri Canaj – Say Goodbye Before You Leave

They live in camps without any privacy, without medical care and without running water. They pray beneath olive trees, bathe in the Aegean and put their children to sleep in makeshift beds made of cardboard and stone. For a number of years, the Magnum photographer Enri Canaj accompanied migrants on their journeys into uncertainty, documenting the deprivations of lives in a state of emergency.

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Graciela Magnoni – Nosotras

Graciela Magnoni – Nosotras

The photographer's long-term project is rather like an on-going exposure of the differences and, above all, the commonalities between girls and women all over the world. For Magnoni, photography is her passion and a part of her true self. She uses the camera to capture everyday scenes, in which she sees aspects of herself reflected.

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Nikita Teryoshin – Nothing Personal – The Back Office of War

Nikita Teryoshin – Nothing Personal – The Back Office of War

Enlightening glimpses behind the scenes of the global arms industry: in his series, the photographer presents a complete contrast to the battlefield scenarios presented by the daily press. In his images, war appears like an over-sized playground for adults, where the deadly consequences of a constantly-growing arms industry are deliberately ignored. Teryoshin found his motifs at exclusive 'defence trade fairs' in Europe, Africa, Asia and both North and South America.

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Nicolò Filippo Rosso – Forgotten in Dust

Nicolò Filippo Rosso – Forgotten in Dust

Coal dust particles from one of the largest open-pit mines in the world settle over the lives, hopes and memories of the inhabitants of La Guajira. Over recent years, LOBA nominee Nicolò Filippo Rosso has travelled repeatedly to the peninsula, capturing the threatening situation there in black and white images. His series represents a photographic exploration of injustice.

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