One of These 12 Photographers Will Win the 2026 Leica Oskar Barnack Award

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left, sheep on a green hillside; center, a woman in a purple veil holds a malnourished child; right, a person in dark clothing rides a white horse on a plain under a cloudy sky.

An international jury has selected the 12 shortlisted finalists for the 46th Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA), one of the most prestigious photography prizes in the world.

The 12 finalists below were selected through an extensive, multi-stage judging process and will be presented in expanded detail over the coming weeks.

Further, for the first time, the jury also selected the winner of the newly established LOBA Women Grant. The winner of the LOBA Women Grant will have their work presented next year.

The winners of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award Main Prize, the Newcomer Award, and the LOBA Women Grant will all be announced on October 8, 2026, at an awards ceremony in Wetzlar, Germany.

The Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award is selected from photographers nominated by experts at 28 international institutions in 18 countries.

Today, only the finalists for the Main Prize are being unveiled.

The LOBA awards have recognized exceptional photographic talent annually since 1980. This year’s jury selected shortlisted photographers from a much larger pool of photographers nominated by 130 photography experts across 48 countries. Each nominator can select up to three photo series to nominate.

 Without further ado, the 2026 Leica Oskar Barnack Award finalists.

2026 LOBA Main Prize Shortlist

Saher Alghorra

Palestinian photojournalist Saher Alghorra documented the war in Gaza for his series, Witnessing Gaza. This 2025 series shows scenes of scarcity and starvation, violence, and loss. Beyond the moments that made global headlines, Alghorra’s work also looks more closely at the interpersonal stories on a smaller scale that never make the news.

A bald man with a beard stands against a plain background, arms crossed. He wears a light gray t-shirt and blue jeans with a rip on one knee, and has a black wristwatch on his left wrist.

A woman in a purple headscarf holds a malnourished child against a cracked, beige wall. The child’s ribs are visible, and both appear somber and weary.

A large crowd of people walks along a coastal road between the sea and damaged tents, with buildings and ruins visible in the background under a clear sky.

A family sits at a table in a partially destroyed building, surrounded by rubble and debris, with a dirt road and more destruction in the background.

Todd Antony

New Zealander Todd Antony’s series, Buzkashi, delivers striking black-and-white photographs of the archaic traditions of the eponymous sport played on horseback. This sport is practiced today in Tajikistan and involves combatants fighting over a headless goat cadaver. The sport has been played for thousands of years after it was invented by nomadic horse-riding cultures in Central Asia.

A man with short gray hair wearing a dark denim shirt looks seriously at the camera against a dark background.

A group of people on horseback compete intensely in a traditional Central Asian game; dust swirls around them, and mountains rise in the background.

A man in muddy, rugged clothing and a helmet sits on a horse, gazing into the distance with a serious expression. Snow-covered mountains are blurred in the background.

A person wearing a helmet and jacket sits atop a white horse on an open plain, with distant mountains and a cloudy sky in the background. The image is in black and white.

Anush Babajanyan

Photographer Anush Babajanyan’s series, The Aral Sea and the Battered Waters of Central Asia, does as its name suggests and looks at the Aral Sea, which was once the world’s fourth-largest lake. The lake shrank over 90 percent because of Soviet hydro projects, creating an environmental crisis that affects Uzbek and Kazakh communities to this day. The people there have been forced to adapt, and thanks to the Dike Kokaral dam, have been able to begin recovering.

A woman with short brown hair wearing a gray long-sleeve shirt sits outdoors, smiling slightly. The background includes greenery and a rusty, old vehicle under a clear sky.

Four women sit and talk under a large concrete structure with a flat roof, near houses and trees, on a quiet, rural street. A bicycle lies on the ground nearby.

A braided river flows through a wide, rocky valley surrounded by steep, green mountains under a cloudy, misty sky.

A group of people and a dog stand outside at sunset, viewed from inside a building with a bicycle leaning against the wall. A bird flies in the sky.

Damir Faizulin

Damir Faizulin, a Russian photographer, looks at nature and how people live alongside it in the mountainous Dagestan region. Faizulin’s series, Preserving Nature as Preserving Ourselves, grapples with how people live alongside nature, balance often conflicting goals, and carve out a new future constantly affected by the past.

A man with a shaved head and trimmed beard wears a black turtleneck sweater, standing against a plain, light-colored wall, looking directly at the camera with a neutral expression.

A large flock of sheep grazes on a green hillside with steep, grassy mountains and a partly cloudy sky in the background.

A person balances on a slackline in front of a snow-covered house with mountains in the background, while another person stands near the door.

A woman in a red dress pulls a loaded donkey carrying bundles of dried plants along a dirt path in a rural, hilly landscape under a clear blue sky.

William Keo

Extramuros is the work of French photographer William Keo. The series looks at the young people living in banlieues today. While the word translates to “suburbs,” these are essentially the housing projects of Paris, and the neighborhoods have long been scarred by social violence, economic crisis, and controversial government housing policies. But the banlieues are also the birthplace of incredible creativity and innovation. Keo deals with all of that and more in Extramuros.

Black and white photo of a man with short dark hair and a beard, wearing a loose sweatshirt, sitting against a plain light-colored wall and looking directly at the camera with a neutral expression.

A group of people stand on the roof of a building beneath a yellow "PRESSE" sign. The building has "TABAC" and "FDJ" signs visible. The sky is clear in the background.

A woman sits in a car's backseat, gently holding a man lying across her lap. Both look calm and relaxed, with warm sunlight softly illuminating their faces.

A child and adult run down a parking lot towards a large, colorful apartment building, with parked cars lining the sides and greenery in the background.

Slava Lyu-fa

In Russia’s extreme Arctic regions, life is exceptionally difficult and even more fragile. Photographer Slava Lyu-fa points his lens at how Russia’s Arctic communities work together to survive for the series, Inner Distance.

A person with glasses and long hair stands in front of a large pine tree, wearing a blue jacket and patterned scarf. Yellow leaves are scattered among the tree branches above.

A person in a camouflage jacket stands in front of a wooden ladder and blue wall, holding a small black and tan dog.

An old snow-covered building with lit windows stands in the dark, snowy landscape. A vehicle with headlights on is parked nearby. The sky is dark with a green aurora visible.

Two men in gray and red uniforms sit at a table with a floral tablecloth in a dimly lit room. Tools hang behind them, and papers are posted on a blue wall. Plush toys are lined up on a shelf above.

Valery Melnikov

Another Russian photographer, Valery Melnikov, focuses on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in Mariupol: Open Wounds. Melnikov’s documentary series documents how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine devastated the city and its people. Melnikov has spent his career documenting war and conflict, including in Chechnya, Georgia, Lebanon, and Syria. He began working in eastern Ukraine over a decade ago when Russia first began military operations in Crimea.

A man with short light hair and fair skin, wearing a black shirt, faces the camera with a serious expression. The lighting is dramatic, illuminating one side of his face while the background remains dark.

A boy in an orange tank top stands indoors with his injured arm in a sling, held by a metal external fixator, looking serious in dim lighting.

Thick black smoke rises from industrial buildings behind apartment blocks, indicating a large fire or explosion in an urban-industrial area. The sky is overcast, and the scene appears tense and hazardous.

A man pushes a cart with a child and belongings down a damaged, debris-strewn street lined with dilapidated buildings under a cloudy sky.

Benedikt Renč

Czech photographer Benedikt Renč’s series, Cairo, offers a personal perspective of Cairo, Egypt’s capital city. Cairo is undergoing radical changes, and Renč says he wanted to “document the last generation to live in this raw and uncouth reality.” The photographer says Cairo will soon change beyond recognition, and he hopes his photos help preserve how the city once was.

A bald man with a trimmed beard and earring stares seriously at the camera. He wears a dark textured jacket and a necklace, posed against a plain light background in black and white.

A shirtless young man with short, curly hair stands on a rooftop, looking out over a sprawling city filled with buildings and satellite dishes under a hazy sky.

A large plume of black smoke rises from a burning vehicle in a fenced lot between buildings, with a motorcycle in the foreground and a person observing the scene.

An empty, hazy parking lot with red cones blocking a lane; tall light poles line the area, and pyramids are faintly visible in the background through the dust.

Elliot Ross

Taiwanese-American photographer Elliot Ross’ series, A Question of Balance, documents the history of water supply in the Navajo Nation, the largest Native American reservation in the United States. Ross considers how the water supply has been shaped by conflict between Indigenous people and settlers, droughts, and excessive water consumption by those living far off the reservation.

Five people jump off a wooden dock into a large, clear swimming pool, surrounded by modern houses and palm trees under a blue sky. Other people relax and swim in the background.

A person bends over a sink inside a small shed surrounded by blue barrels in a desert landscape with tall, twin rock formations in the background.

An elderly woman with long gray hair sits indoors, wearing a reddish sweater and blue skirt. She has her hands folded in her lap and looks calmly ahead. A table with a checkered tablecloth is visible behind her.

Annie Sakkab

Annie Sakkab is a Palestinian-Jordanian photographer who also focused on water for her series. We Used to Watch the Rivers Go By looks at how water is much more than just a resource for people.

A person with curly hair, glasses, and earrings poses with one hand near their neck, wearing a textured blouse against a dark, plain background.

“What began as curiosity about a resource turned into a deep dive into my own history and my heritage, a search for roots in a country shaped by centuries of change and hardship. This is not only a study of water; it is also a story about people,” Sakkab says.

A person in a light robe walks away from a blue water truck on sandy ground, with trees and small buildings in the background under a hazy sky.

Two girls, one in a dark hijab and the other with loose dark hair, stand close together. The light softly illuminates their faces, with one girl's eyes looking directly at the camera, while the other looks away.

A woman in a maroon dress fills a jug with water in a small pink kitchen, while a child in a yellow shirt stands in a dimly lit doorway, looking inside. Several white water containers are on the floor.

David Sládek

Czechoslovakian-born photographer David Sládek, who now lives in the United Kingdom and Ireland, made the Slovakian village of Šumiac his second home nearly 20 years ago. Since then, Sládek has been photographing daily life there. His black-and-white series, People of Šumiac, presents this long-term project and how a creek in the village separates two distinct groups of people, local Slovaks and the Roma who live there. As Sládek comments, the water is not the only thing that separates these two groups of people in Šumiac.

A man with long hair and a beard sits on a couch, looking to the side. He wears a dark shirt and is in a softly lit room with a plant and framed photo in the background.

A group of women in headscarves walk through a snowy landscape, some carrying buckets and wearing patterned clothing, with trees and rocks in the background.

A smiling child in the foreground with houses, a car, and grassy yard in the background, shown in black and white.

A crying baby lies bundled in a stroller on a rough, muddy street, with rundown structures and a child standing nearby. The scene is in black and white, evoking a somber, gritty atmosphere.

Laila AnnMarie Stevens

American photographer Laila AnnMarie Stevens’ work, Clayton Sisterhood Project, was inspired by her desire to feel connected to her ancestors, a legacy of strong Black women. The series focuses on Stevens’ two sisters, who, along with her four nieces, moved from Queens in New York City to a shared house and plot of land in Clayton, North Caroline, to create new lives for themselves.

A young woman with curly hair, wearing large yellow glasses, a headscarf, large earrings, and a nose ring, looks at the camera. Tattoos are visible on her arm. The background is dark and blurred.

A group of women and young girls pose together between two houses. One older woman sits in a white chair at the center, surrounded by others standing, all looking at the camera.

A person with an afro sits in an armchair in a room filled with family photos, a piano, and chandeliers. The walls have framed art and mirrors, reflecting the scene and adding depth to the cozy, nostalgic space.

Three women pose together in a grassy, sunlit park with tall trees in the background. Two women sit on the grass while one stands behind them, all looking toward the camera. The photo is in black and white.

Winners Will Be Announced on October 8, 2026

The winners of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award, LOBA Newcomer Award, and new LOBA Women Grant will be unveiled on October 8, 2026, at an awards ceremony in Wetzlar, Germany.

“The Leica Oskar Barnack Award celebrates not only exceptional photographic quality but also photography’s ability to make societal change visible and to create connections between people,” says Leica’s Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, Art Director and Chief Representative of Leica Galleries International.

“The LOBA draws attention to longstanding projects, which would not receive the visibility they deserve without this platform.”

Image creditsLeica Oskar Barnack Award. Individual photographers are credited in the captions.

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