Overview of the winners 1980–2023

The Leica Oskar Barnack Award has been granted since 1980. The occasion for the launch of the competition was the centenary in 1979 of Oskar Barnack (1879–1936), the leading inventor and pioneer of 35mm photography. Since then, the winning series have produced a vibrant archive of the history of photography and photojournalism. The list of award winners provides an initial overview, while the individual presentations on this web-page offer further insight into the photographers and their series.

• 1980 Floris Bergkamp, Netherlands
• 1981 Björn H. Larsson Ask, Sweden
• 1982 Wendy Watriss, USA
• 1983 Neil McGahee, USA
• 1984 Stormi Greener, USA
• 1985 Sebastião Salgado, Brazil
• 1986 David C. Turnley, USA
• 1987 Jeff Share, USA
• 1988 Chris Steele-Perkins, Great Britain
• 1989 Charles Mason, USA
• 1990 Raphael Gaillarde, France
• 1991 Barry Lewis, Great Britain
• 1992 Sebastião Salgado, Brazil
• 1993 Eugene Richards, USA
• 1995 Gianni Berengo-Gardin, Italy
• 1996 Larry Towell, Canada
• 1997 Jane Evelyn Atwood, USA
• 1998 Fabio Ponzio, Italy
• 1999 Claudine Doury, France
• 2000 Luc Delahaye, France
• 2001 Bertrand Meunier, France
• 2002 Narelle Autio, Australia
• 2003 Andrea Hoyer, USA
• 2004 Peter Granser, Germany
• 2005 Guy Tillim, South Africa
• 2006 Tomás Munita, ChiIe
• 2007 Julio Bittencourt, Brazil
• 2008 Lucia Nimcova, Slowakia
• 2009 Mikhael Subotzky, South Africa
  Dominic Nahr, Switzerland, Newcomer
• 2010 Jens Olof Lasthein, Sweden
  Andy Spyra, Germany, Newcomer
• 2011 Jan Grarup, Denmark
  Jing Huang, China, Newcomer
• 2012 Frank Hallam Day, USA
  Piotr Zbierski, Poland, Newcomer
• 2013 Evgenia Arbugaeva, Russia
  Ciril Jazbec, Slovenia, Newcomer
• 2014 Martin Kollar, Slowakia
  Alejandro Cegarra, Venezuela, Newcomer
• 2015 JH Engström, Sweden
  Wiktoria Wojciechowska, Poland, Newcomer
• 2016 Scarlett Coten, France
  Clémentine Schneidermann, France, Newcomer
• 2017 Terje Abusdal, Norway
  Sergey Melnitchenko, Ukraine, Newcomer
• 2018 Max Pinckers, Belgium
  Mary Gelman, Russia, Newcomer
• 2019 Mustafah Abdulaziz, USA
  Nanna Heitmann, Germany, Newcomer
• 2020 Luca Locatelli, Italy
  Gonçalo Fonseca, Portugal, Newcomer
• 2021 Ana María Arévalo Gosen, Venezuela
  Emile Ducke, Germany, Newcomer
• 2022 Kiana Hayeri, Canada
  Valentin Goppel, Germany, Newcomer
• 2023 Ismail Ferdous, Bangladesch
  Ziyi Le, China, Newcomer

*Only one competition was held 1993/94