Shortlist 2025 / Leica Oskar Barnack Award

Shortlist Overview 2025

Twelve series make up the shortlist for the 45th edition of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA). Over the following weeks, we will be introducing the photographers and their series.

Lynsey Addario: “Mom, I Want to Live” – A Young Girl Battles War and Cancer

In 2020, two-year-old Sonya Liakh was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a rare form of eye cancer. Four years later, the photographer accompanied the little girl at a time when war had long left its mark on society. Far from the main battlegrounds, the series speaks of the turmoil in a Ukraine torn apart by suffering – and sheds light on the war’s impact on the population.

Frederik Rüegger: „I Am a Stranger in This Country“

The Irish and English Travellers have lived for centuries as nomadic people in the British Isles. Because of their lifestyle, they are constantly excluded and discriminated against. Rüegger’s expressive pictures of this traditional community offer insight into a life defined by deprivation, fear and worry, but also by solidarity and cohesion.

Jodi Windvogel: Life Under Occupation – Cissie Gool House

Displacement, urban renewal and unfair environmental conditions: the occupation of Cissie Gool House in Cape Town in 2017 was an act of resistance against a system that pushes marginalised groups to the periphery. In her project, the photographer examines how communities reclaim urban spaces and, taking everyday life as an example, highlights the deep relationship between people and their surroundings.

Xiangjie Peng: The Rise of Queer Underground Party Culture in China

The Chinese photographer grew up during the height of China’s Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976), in a city defined by the aerospace industry. Unchallenged by his job in aircraft manufacturing, he became a self-taught photographer, which he saw as a subtle antidote to the manipulation of the state-controlled media.

Arlette Bashizi: Beyond Numbers

People in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo have been suffering from four years of war between the M23 rebel group and the Congolese army. 7.8 million victims have been forced to leave their homes because of the fighting. With the series Beyond Numbers, the Congolese photographer brings the fateful stories behind the statistics to the fore, and draws attention to a conflict that has been overshadowed by world events.

Ivor Prickett: War on the Nile – Fragmented Sudan

Following the humanistic tradition, which focuses on people, the photographer not only succeeds in conveying the status quo, but also communicates a wide range of emotions in his images – including joy and optimism, even Following the humanistic tradition, which focuses on people, the photographer not only succeeds in conveying the status quo, but also communicates a wide range of emotions in his images – including joy and optimism, even in the midst of a world of deprivation and destruction. in the midst of a world of deprivation and destruction.

Anastasia Taylor-Lind: 5km from the Frontline

Since 2018, the photographer has been following the lives of three families from the Donbass for her long-term project. In the selection of images published here, she focuses on the devastating effects of war on the environment – which also have dramatic consequences for the people.

Youbing Zhan: Migrant Workers in China’s Assembly Line

For 15 years, Youbing Zhan was himself one of around 300 million migrants working in the industrial heart of China. Taken close up, in almost casual yet extremely impressive pictures, he documents the everyday life of the so-called mingong in Dongguan, with images between hope and assembly lines, factories and leisure time.

Stanislav Ostrous: Civilians – The Gray Zone

During military operations, many local inhabitants were able to leave their homes in the formerly occupied and strongly contested Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kherson. Those who remain are soldiers, doctors, rescue services, volunteers, journalists and, above all, locals who did not flee – because they were unable to find a safe place, had no resources to allow them to escape, or they simple do not want to leave. The Ukrainian photographer gave them visibility through his portraits.

Gideon Mendel: Deluge

Using aesthetics that are reminiscent of portrait painting, Gideon Mendel photographs his protagonists in front of their homes. The flooded surroundings stand on equal footing as the people, creating a dialogue between humans and disaster. The photographer uses the reflections created by the conditons as a stylistic device.

Shortlist 2025

The shortlisted candidates for the internationally-renowned Leica Oskar Barnack Award photo competition, that will be granted this year for the 45th time, are set.

Shortlist Overview 2025

Lynsey Addario: “Mom, I Want to Live” – A Young Girl Battles War and Cancer

Frederik Rüegger: „I Am a Stranger in This Country“

Jodi Windvogel: Life Under Occupation – Cissie Gool House

Xiangjie Peng: The Rise of Queer Underground Party Culture in China

Arlette Bashizi: Beyond Numbers

Ivor Prickett: War on the Nile – Fragmented Sudan

Anastasia Taylor-Lind: 5km from the Frontline

Youbing Zhan: Migrant Workers in China’s Assembly Line

Stanislav Ostrous: Civilians – The Gray Zone

Gideon Mendel: Deluge