Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2014

Leica FotograFie internationaL speciaL edition Äą 3.2014

winners & FinaLists

Leica

oskar Barnack award

9,90 EUR D 19088 F

4 192346 109908

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15,00 USD

2014

SAILOR NuRSe KISS

Capturing history for 100 years www.100years.leica-camera.com 2

LFI Special 3.2014

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4 Focus

6 martIn koLLar The Slovak photographer’s Field Trip series taken in Israel, has earned him the 2014 Leica Oskar Barnack Award.

DEAR READERS, Photography is certainly the most popular hobby in the world; and now, with mobile phones, it’s more popular than ever.

There are billions of pictures out there, so it makes sense to have lighthouses to serve as beacons to guide us through this torrential flood of images. Photography awards are like lighthouses that show us the way; and I believe that the Leica Oskar Barnack Award, as one of the oldest awards, is one of the most distinguished.

It draws a large numbers of participants and continues to teach us new things about the art of photography. This year, for the first time we have a Public Award, chosen by voters on the www.i-shot-it. com website (Page 4). As for the main awards, the jury has made an outstanding effort – we are very happy to present the winners and finalists in this special edition of LFI. As they say among photographers, “Good light!”

Andreas Kaufmann, LEICA Camera AG

18 Francesco anseLmI Xenios Zeus: a haunting look at the social upheavals in Greece – a society sliding downhill.

24 Ben BrodY With Endgame Afghanistan the former army reporter reveals daily life for US troops.

30 PatrIck WILLocq I Am Walé Respect Me – the rituals of the primipara women of the Ekonda Pygmies in Central Africa.

36 max caBeLLo orcasItas The wounds of the civil war in an isolated and forgotten corner of Peru: Chungui Grief.

42 ILan godFreY The Legacy of the Mine series shows the decline of humans and nature surrounding mining in South Africa.

48 aLvaro dePrIt Suspension – first home in a foreign land: the life of young migrants in temporary housing in Italy.

54 emerIc LhuIsset The provocative series Theater of War – a tableau vivant of Kurdish guerillas fighting in Iraq.

60 aLFonso moraL LeIca FotograFIe InternatIonaL Special Edition Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2014 LFI PHOTOGRAPHIE GMBH ISSN:0937-3977 www.lfi-online.de, mail@lfi-online.de Editors in chief: Inas Fayed, Frank P. Lohstöter Art Direction: Brigitte Schaller Layout: Thorsten Kirchhoff Contributors: Carla Susanne Erdmann, Katrin Iwanczuk, Bernd Luxa, Ulrich Rüter, Simon Schwarzer, Katrin Ullmann, Osanna Vaughn (translation) The magazine and all its written and pictorial content are copyrighted, and can not be reproduced without written permission.

Leica – registered trademark – 25125

Shadows of Tripoli – the Syrian civil war finds its mirror image in the neighbouring Lebanon.

66 aLIsa resnIk For her One Another series, the Russian photographer wandered through the streets of Berlin at night.

72 aLejandro cegarra The Torre de David office building in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, occupied by Chávez supporters.

82 PIcture Index

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2014 Leica Osk ar Barnack award | FOcus

The 33rd edition of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award competition was, once again, an exciting challenge for the jury who had to select the most convincing series from many top quality submissions. LFI spoke with jury member Ingo Taubhorn.

ingo Taubhorn (right) is a photographer and head curator at the Haus der photographie/Deichtorhallen in Hamburg

Further information about the leica Oskar Barnack award can be found at www.leica-oskar-barnack-preis.de

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As in every year, the response to the call for submissions for the 2014 Leica Oskar Barnack Award was enormous. Over 2,500 participants sent in their series hoping to qualify for the main and the newcomer awards. On an international level, the majority of the submissions came from Italy (213), followed by France (208), and Germany (179). From the 565 series for the newcomer award, the statistics show China, France, and the USA in the lead.

First launched in 1979 in honour of the Leica inventor Oskar Barnack, the yearly award has long established itself as one of the most important competitions in the world. In this, Leica Fotografie’s centenary year, the organisers doubled the prize money, and introduced the Leica Oskar Barnack Public Award. To spread the word about this new award, Leica collaborated with I Shot It (www.i-shot-it.com), a platform for photo enthusiasts. Members of the community were able to vote directly on-line. After a head-on race, they elected the Comfort Zone series by Lithuanian photographer Tadas Černiauskas, who will receive prize money amounting to 2,500 euros. From among the active voters, Leica will draw ten winners who will each receive a Leica C camera.

As customary, the selection of the traditional Leica Oskar Barnack Award was carried out by a professional jury, who met together for direct and passionate discussions. The winner will receive full Leica M equipment and prize money amounting to 10,000 euros. The newcomer award winner also receives Leica M equipment, and 5,000 euros in prize money. The award ceremony itself will take place within the framework of the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie from 7 to 13 July in Arles, located in southern France.

Ingo Taubhorn, head curator at the Haus der Photographie/Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, was a member of the jury.

He is in charge of curating the large Hans Michael Koetzle 100 Jahre Leica-Fotografie (100 years of Leica Photography) jubilee exhibition that will open on 24 October at the Haus der Photographie.

LFI: Herr Taubhorn, what surprised you most about the submissions?

Ingo Taubhorn: The consistent quality of the works submitted, as well as the diversity of the interesting socio-political themes that the photographers from around the world dealt with. Each series reflected an intense and long-term involvement with the issues. It was very different to short-term photojournalism.

Each piece of work represented a serious and intense form of documentation.

LFI: Compared to your other experiences as a juror, what was particular about the Leica Oskar Barnack Award?

Ingo Taubhorn: The careful pre-selection process meant that we did not need to judge all the submissions, but just the condensed selection made by the pre-jury.

That saved a lot of time, though I had to depend on the pre-jury’s good judgement.

Unfortunately, this means that a ‘latent series’ may have been missed somehow.

LFI: You studied photography in Dortmund and worked as a freelance photog-

Photo: Nora Aust/Deichtorhallen Hamburg

“QUALITy AND CONSISTeNCy”

rapher for many years before turning to curating. Did you look at the picture series from the perspective of a curator or of a photographer?

Ingo Taubhorn: I can easily switch back and forth between the two, but the underlying fact that counts from both perspectives is the level of quality and consistency that can be seen in the series.

The wInners As a photographer, I am interested in the biographic path followed by a colleague, and the circumstances that led him to his subject; however, those are aspects that are not of primary importance in the selection process. I also understand the technological conditions. As a curator, I draw from my photo-historic experience, and because of that, I am able to conceptualize and classify a piece of work. Both perspectives are helpful when you are judging a series.

LFI: Does your approach tend to be more intuitive or more analytical?

Ingo Taubhorn: Intuition definitely plays a role the first time you see a series. That’s why it’s a good thing that there are various rounds before the final decision is made.

The following evaluations are jointly discussed and become more analytical, because in the end reason weighs in more than just pure feeling.

LFI: How would you judge the balance between classic photo reportage and freehand, artistic works?

The jury (from the left): Brigitte Schaller (art Director lFi), Karin Rehn-Kaufmann (art Director leica Galleries worldwide), Xavier canonne (Director of the Musée de la photographie, charleroi), evgenia arbugaeva (Winner of the 2013 leica Oskar Barnack award), ingo Taubhorn

Ingo Taubhorn: The balance tends noticeably towards classic photo reportage. In this competition there is a clear preference for imagery with a socio-political background.

LFI: Does the expression ‘photojournalism with humanistic standards’ make any sense to you? Is it still valid today?

Ingo Taubhorn: Well, humanistic photography is described as the appreciation of life and the representation of its exceptional diversity as seen through the photographer’s lens. Documentary photography found its way into museums a long time ago, and the general public is enormously interested in it. People want to know about the world directly – even if it’s second hand.

LFI: Was it easy to choose the winners or did lengthy discussions take place?

Ingo Taubhorn: With such an amount of quality and considering the different areas of expertise and nationalities of the five jury members, it’s not easy to reach a final decision. It becomes really

interesting when a jury member has the advantage – or disadvantage – of knowing one or more of the photographers personally. Then the discussions become even more emotional. In the end, only a limited number of selections came into consideration for the first place. It’s unfortunate, because each one was worthy of winning. interview: ulrich rüter

1980

Floris Bergk amp (NL)

1981

Björn l arsson (S)

1982

Wendy Watriss (USA)

1983

neil mcgahee (USA)

1984

stormi greener (USA)

1985

seBastiao salgado (BR)

1986

david c. turnley (USA)

1987

jeFF share (USA)

1988

chris steele-perkins (GB)

1989

charles mason (USA)

1990

r aphael gaill arde (F)

1991

Barry le Wis (GB)

1992

seBastiao salgado (BR)

1993* eugene richards (USA) 1995

gianni Berengo-gardin (I)

1996

l arry toWell (C)

1997

jane evelyn at Wood (USA)

1998

FaBio ponzio (I)

1999

cl audine doury (F)

2000

luc del ahaye (F)

2001

Bertr and meunier (F)

2002

narelle autio (AUS)

2003

andre a hoyer (USA)

2004

peter gr anser (D)

2005

guy tillim (RSA)

2006

tomás munita (RCH)

2007

julio Bit tencourt (BR)

2008

lucia nimcova (SK)

2009

mik hael suBotzk y (RSA) dominic nahr (CH) Newcomer

2010

jens oloF l asthein (S) andy spyr a (D) Newcomer

2011

jan garup (DK) jing huang (CN) Newcomer

2012

Fr ank hall am day (USA) piotr zBierski (PL) Newcomer

2013

evgenia arBugaeva (RUS) ciril jazBec (SVN) Newcomer

* only one competition was held 1993/94

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2014 Leica Osk ar Barnack award | martin kOLL ar

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LeIca

Oskar Barnack award

2014 MartIn kOLLar

FIeLd trIp The Slovak photographer travelled regularly to Israel between 2009 and 2011. His images lie somewhere between surreal film stills and deep symbolism; yet they always show the truth, capturing the feeling and tense atmosphere that he discovered there.

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“None of the images were staged. All the pictures are based on observation. I came across those places and situations, and I wanted to record how I found things.�

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martin koll ar | 2014 leica osk ar Barnack award

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2014 Leica Osk ar Barnack award | martin kOLL ar

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“When I take pictures I try to load them with room for interpretation.

I try to imbue them with as many meanings as possible, because there are many ways of looking at things.�

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“Of course, there are many stories behind the pictures, and maybe they are even more interesting than the pictures themselves. But I always avoid explanations and I don’t add captions.”

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martin koll ar | 2014 leica osk ar Barnack award

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2014 Leica Osk ar Barnack award | martin kOLL ar

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“I wanted my pictures to convey the idea that you never know where you are. Somehow you’re just guessing all the time – and I wanted to share that feeling with the viewer.”

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2014 Leica Osk ar Barnack award | martin kOLL ar

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Martin Kollar has won this year’s Leica Oskar Barnack Award with his Field Trip series from Israel. It includes unsettling pictures that are hard to place. They are cleverly composed, everyday images full of suggestive strength that seem far from reality, and yet are very close. LFI spoke with the Slovak photographer about deliberate provocation, how captions can inhibit the imagination, and how filmmaking influences his work.

LFI: Between 2009 and 2011, you spent a lot of time in Israel for your Field Trip project. What impressed you most there?

Martin Kollar: Actually there was no one particular situation. The impressions were more to do with the tension there. Even though on the surface it was a very peaceful period when I travelled the country, I still always sensed something – almost like electricity in the air.

LFI: Could you describe your approach?

Kollar: Field Trip is part of a project titled This Place, which explores the complexity of Israel and the West Bank through the eyes of twelve internationally acclaimed photographers. I always worked on the Israeli side of the country; and I tried to take a look into the future. I didn’t want to work with the consequences of the past.

My focus was on how the Israelis look to the future and what might happen once the future is here.

LFI: What was your first impression?

Kollar: When I first arrived I asked myself what the hell was I doing there? There were so many images I had already seen of the place. Then I did become curious to see what is going, even though I couldn’t understand everything. The best thing that happened to me was that I had no agenda. That gave me freedom. This is also the explanation for the title: Field Trip.

LFI: The title sounds rather harmless.

Kollar: The title is connected to the fact that I was invited there. Part of the time, my trip was like a guided tour. I wanted

MartIn KoLLar Born in 1971 in Žilina, today’s Slovakia, Kollar works as a photographer mostly on long-term projects, and as a documentary filmmaker.

He studied at the academy of performing arts in Bratislava. Numerous awards, publications and exhibitions. www.martinkollar.com

my pictures to convey the idea that you never know where you are. This is also connected to the title. Somehow you’re just guessing all the time – and I wanted to share that feeling with the viewer.

LFI: Some of your images seem staged.

Kollar: None of them were staged. All the pictures are based on observation. I came across those places and situations, and I wanted to record how I found things.

LFI: Your series seems to ask questions rather than give answers or explanations.

Is the girl plugged into various scientific instruments part of an experiment or is she an actor playing a role?

Kollar: Do you really want to know? Of course, there are many stories behind the pictures, and maybe they are even more interesting than the pictures themselves. But I always avoid explanations and I don’t add captions. And I do that on purpose. That way the spectator is free to follow his own approach, his own imagination. If I tell you the story, there is no additional information.

LFI: The information would close the door on the imagination.

Kollar: Exactly.

LFI: But the images of the animals were taken at a vet’s surgery?

Kollar: With the animal pictures, I was trying to convey a weird and painful side of Israel. The animals are, so to speak, symbolic of cruelty and control in the country.

Animals can be victims, can be mistreated, can be subject to research, but one can be

more distant when facing a cruel situation involving animals. The pictures are a kind of shifted way of showing what happens to the people there.

LFI: Even though you captured scenes of everyday life, your pictures make life look anything but ordinary. They look rather like stills extracted from a strange movie.

Kollar: Your perception is very close to the truth. Actually, I studied cinema, and I still work as a camera man or documentary film director. I keep doing both: photography and film; so you could say that there’s always a certain professional deformation, or let’s call it influence. Of course, film is film and photography is photography, but there is a certain blurry edge between the two media, and for sure there is a connection.

LFI: Your images somehow convey a kind of surreal and at the same time symbolic atmosphere. Do you agree?

Kollar: When I take photographs I always try to load them with plenty of room for interpretation. I try to imbue an image with as many meanings as possible, because there are always many ways of looking at things. For me the whole process starts right at the very beginning, from the moment I arrive somewhere, and continues through the actual picture taking, then whether to include them or not during the editing process, and on till when you’re holding the book in your hands. For me, each part of the process is as important as the other.

LFI: So, the process is finished after you have the edited book?

Kollar: No. The process is never finished.

If something is finished you’re dead.

LFI: But if you want to start a new project, you need to finish or, let’s say, close the previous one…

Kollar: …I’d prefer to say that a book is like a pause in the whole process. It’s only on pause mode. Its impossible to stop questioning everything. If I stop, I would feel dead then. interview: katrin ullmann

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Francesco anseLmI

XenIos Zeus The first time the European Union administered an emergency bailout for Greece was in 2010.

The austerity measures adopted in response to the rescue package have produced consequences that many prefer to ignore.

Francesco Anselmi shows a society sliding downhill.

a night patrol of Greek DiaS police pursuing a group of drug dealers on motorbikes. anselmi drove with them

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Fr ancesco anselmi | Finalis t 2014

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Fr ancesco anselmi | Finalis t 2014

clockwise from the left: a drug dealer has to show the police his merchandise; a Xenios Zeus unit checks papers in a bar; an old woman looking for something to eat; two men have to undress at the police station in athens’ Omonia district; refugee in a former warehouse in patra

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Fr ancesco anselmi | Finalis t 2014

A country in chaos, desolate circumstances spreading everywhere: since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008, around 30% of jobs in Greece have disappeared. Incomes have reduced by about 40%, unemployment is reaching 30%, and youth unemployment is at 60%. Drastic medical cuts have led to a humanitarian disaster which includes soaring increases in still births, new cases of AIDS and tuberculosis, and more people suffering from depression. According to state records, the number of suicides in Greece has increased by 43% since the beginning of the crisis. Greek society is responding with resignation, religious fervour, and a movement towards right-wing politics.

Self-appointed police units such as Xenios Zeus – ironically meaning God of Hospitality – claim to punish crime and illegal migration, but in reality spread fear and terror. “Many of my colleagues followed radical movements, but I wanted to show the causes,” Anselmi explains, referring to his personal style of reporting that captures these developments. To produce his reportage – part of a long-term project – he spent over a year and a half exploring Athen’s underground scene, becoming acquainted with the police, spending time with drug addicts, and visiting people who appear to be living in a kind of limbo.

With expressive style, dramatic lighting, and a direct approach, Anselmi captured powerful images at the heart of poverty, persecution, and societal isolation. They reflect the many facets of this modern day drama. carla susanne erdmann

Francesco anseLmI Born in Milan in 1975. Graduated from the city’s istituto italiano di Fotografia and attended a photo documentation programme at the icp in New York.

Since 2011 he is under contract to the contrasto photo agency. lives in Milan and New York city. www.francescoanselmi.com

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Finalis t 2014 | Ben Brody

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ben brody

endgame aFgHanIstan At prayer, doing sports, or at artillery practise – Ben Brody’s rather faded colour series Endgame Afghanistan reveals the unvarnished, dismal life of US soldiers stationed in Afghanistan. Brody, who spent time as a reporter for the US Army in Iraq, captures a personal glimpse behind the scenes.

The afghan lieutenant Nasrullah Sharif presents US equipment. Surveillance Zeppelins are part of the repertoire

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US soldiers from 2/4 infantry joke around in camp. Out in the field they look for buried mines, while their afghan colleagues stand in line waiting for their commander

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Ben Brody | Finalis t 2014

a young afghani stops harvesting opium from a poppy field in Kandahar’s Zhari District as an american patrol passes by. Before each mission, the soldiers say a prayer for support

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Ben Brody | Finalis t 2014

Ben Brody has been reporting since 2010 for the on-line magazine GlobalPost on the US military intervention in Afghanistan. He is not interested in making headlines, but rather in reading between the lines. What he discovered was a sense of futility and alienation hanging over the soldiers like a dark cloud. “This is because every good deed and small success is seen within the context of the mission’s overall failure,” Brody realized.

After serving in the Iraq war for two years, the US mission in Afghanistan impacted Brody as both an American and a war veteran. He was mostly in the US camps in the south, which, since the Taliban regained strength in 2009, have suffered particularly heavy attacks. His work drew him to distant outposts with often just 35 to 50 soldiers. This is where he saw the unadulterated images and true face of the US intervention. “These soldiers are in the thick of things, so they don’t pose for the camera,” Brody explains.

Understanding military lingo made Brody’s work easier, but the soldiers saw him as a journalist rather than a veteran.

“If you’re exposed to the same dangers and you remain professional, it’s easy to gain the troop’s trust,” he reports. Since the Vietnam War there is a mistrust between the military and the press. Soldiers today are afraid of being misrepresented. Brody is adamant. “I would never take advantage of, glorify, or demonise the people I portray just to submit some sensationalist report.

The plain truth of war is already enough of a statement.” simon schwarzer

Ben Brody Born 1979, in Boston, Brody now lives in western Massachusetts.

The former US soldier works as a correspondent for the Globalpost and the GroundTruth Foundation. His photo essay, A People’s History of Counterinsurgency, appeared in 2013 at New press. www.photobrody.com

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patrIck wILLocq

I am waLé respect me Colourful and bizarre theatre stages set in the middle of the jungle: French photographer Patrick Willocq has produced an unusual and fascinating series about initiation rituals of primipara women, the so-called Walé of the Ekonda pygmies in the central African Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Walé initiation ritual of the pygmy women of the Democratic Republic of congo is still practised today – but for how long?

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patrick willocq | Finalis t 2014

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patrick willocq | Finalis t 2014

“‘Be an actor not a spectator.’ This is a motto i use in life and it is also something i increasingly believe in photography as well.

That’s why i want my subjects to take an active role in the image, to be an actor instead of being a passive subject.”

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It is a withdrawal, a ritual, and a revalu­ ation: The Walé – the primipara mothers of the Ekonda pygmies – leave their clans and depart with their infants to the homes of their parents, where they are taken care of and remain for a period of two to five years.

The birth of the first child is considered the most important experience in the life of a woman among the Ekonda pygmies in central Africa. The respect given to a Walé is appropriately high, as is the pride felt. The end of this seclusion is celebrated within the clan: the Walé then express their time of solitude in dance and song.

Patrick Willocq transferred this ritual into intense pictures. Born in France, the photographer lived in the Democratic rebublic of Congo for seven years, and in 2013 fulfilled an intention to “document this beautiful tribute to motherhood, fertility and femininity.”

Willocq built small stages for his portraits. After talking together with the Walé, the clan, and the artesans living there, each protagonist was given her own stage set and her own props. The detail­ rich sets reflect the content of the songs of the Walé. These are full of imagery.

One Walé compares this time of isolation to a long boat journey, another identifies with the uniqueness of a bat; yet another expresses her pride by symbolically flying in an airplane. Thanks to the transference and elevation of the rituals to the stage, Willocq’s images manage to draw the abstraction out of an ethnic way of life and to artistically visualize an unusually different tradition. katrin ullmann

patrIck wILLocq Born in France in 1969. autodidact. after working for 20 years for multinational concerns, Willocq has dedicated himself to photography in 2012.

Numerous exhibitions and awards.

He lives in Hong Kong and the Democratic Republic of congo. www.patrickwillocq.com

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after their return, the Walé sing about their experiences and knowledge. 21 year-old asongwaka (right) agreed to go into seclusion against her will, accepting her father’s decision. She sings that she went to school and therefore can read and write (which is quite rare). She manifests here her superiority over her rivals

patrick willocq | Finalis t 2014

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Max CabeLLo orCasItas

ChunguI grIeF For over twenty years, guerillas of the Sendero Luminoso carried out a vicious battle against the Peruvian Army in Chungui, an isolated and forgotten corner of Peru. It cost the lives of more than 1,300 people. Thirty years later, Peruvian photographer Max Cabello Orcasitas reports of the wounds of the past.

Members of a self-defence patrol consisting of civilians. This patrol also helps with investigating crimes in the area

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ma x cabello orcasitas | Finalis t 2014

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an exhausted anthropologist of the investigations commission collapses after having wandered lost for hours (above); a traditional peruvian headstone (below)

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ma x cabello orcasitas | Finalis t 2014

in chungui, wedding ceremonies only take place once a year, as there is no priest in the community (above); a pathologist digs up bodies from a mass grave (below)

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Between 1980 and 2000, Peru suffered the greatest political disturbances, violent encounters and mass murders of recent history, all instigated by the Maoist terrorist group Sendero Luminoso. “What happened in Chungui, an 800 kilometre strip of land south east of Lima, has been forgotten. I stumbled on a widely neglected subject and decided to do a photographic essay on life after the trauma,� explains Max Cabello Orcasitas. His family comes from the Ayacucho province to which Chungui belongs. In a twenty year period, 1,348 people were massacred.

In addition, orphaned children died and families starved while the men defended their land instead of tending to their fields.

Cabello Orcasitas wanted to learn more about the place where the massacres had taken place, and to report on the lives of the people who, after twenty years, wanted to rediscover peace. Between 2009 and 2013, the photographer travelled a number of times to the remote region which is located at 3,500 metres altitude and many days hike from the closest highway. In 2013, two forensic teams from the Peruvian Public Attorney’s Office exhumed over 200 bodies that had been hastily buried by the guerillas and by the Peruvian Army. Cabello Orcasitas followed the investigation as well as the daily lives of the local inhabitants who still live in mourning and fear. With his careful approach and film-like reporting style, Cabello Orcasitas offers a glimpse of a people whose future is still heavily traumatized by the past. carla susanne erdmann

max cabeLLo orcasItas Born in lima, peru, in 1974.

He studied communication Sciences in lima, where he lives today.

Since 1999 he has worked as a freelance photographer for papers and agencies. in 2004 he received the Eugene Courret National Photography Award. www.supayfotos.com

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ma x cabello orcasitas | Finalis t 2014

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ILan godFrey

Legacy oF the MIne As former symbols of South Africa’s wealth – and one of the country’s main economic engines – mines now mirror the neglect and decline of both people and nature. In his series, Ilan Godfrey travelled throughout his homeland in search of the grievous legacy left behind by the influential mining industry.

illegal miners risk their lives in South africa’s abandoned mines. The villagers celebrate them as courageous men

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IL an godfrey | fInaLIs t 2014

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IL an godfrey | fInaLIs t 2014

communities spring up around the mines and are dependent on them. people come to terms with the effects of the mining. canals and rivers are polluted – uncontrolled dumps contaminate the ground water. However, the people still use the rivers for their needs

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Ilan Godfrey began looking into the effects of the mining industry in the Johannesburg region, but his work soon took him further a field. Beginning with the environmental effects of gold mining, his series became more far-reaching.

A portrait emerged of the people left behind after the mines closed. Legacy of the Mine tells personal stories and serves as a mouthpiece for those whose lives and livelihoods were destroyed by the mines.

For over a century, South Africa was known for its mineral wealth. The exploitation of those resources using a badly paid, replaceable workforce turned mining into the country’s greatest industrial sector. While mine owners reaped major profits, the villages dependent on the mines acquired certain prosperity; but it was only transitory, and when the mines closed down the villages were hit particularly hard. “Alcoholism, prostitution and sexually transmitted diseases are rampant today in the miners’ hostels,” Godfrey reports. Around 6,000 mines are currently closed in South Africa, which is five times more than those still running.

Mining in South Africa left permanent damage because the governments were more concerned with economic success than with the environment. Godfrey’s motifs do not always show the damage directly, but mining defined the framework of the project. “Of course, you shouldn’t ignore the value of economic growth,” Godfrey says. “But, the sustainable use of water and land shouldn’t be forgotten either.” simon schwarzer

ILan godFrey Born in Johannesburg in 1980, Godfrey lives and works in cape Town. published among others in Die Zeit, The Guardian, The Sunday Times. He works for various NGOs. Legacy of the Mine appeared in 2013 as a photo book published by Jacana publishing. www.ilangodfrey.com

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in many places, the soil is so contaminated that it will be years until it will be suitable for agriculture (above). Former mineworker Mahlomola William Melato has a silicosis and is sick with tuberculosis – his skin is also changing colour (right). criminality, drug consumption, and prostitution thrive around the mining communities (below)

IL an godfrey | fInaLIs t 2014

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Finalis t 2014 | alvaro deprit

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aLvaro deprIt

suspensIon How do young people experience the period between childhood and adulthood, while in transit to a new home?

The Spanish photographer Alvaro Deprit was invited to visit temporary housing in Italy where young immigrants come together in their first home in a foreign land.

Stepping onto new shores in style – the young egyptian Karim is watched by a house mate as he prepares himself in front of the bathroom mirror

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alvaro deprit | Finalis t 2014

From extrovert to introvert – alvaro Deprit considers the stay at case Famiglie like a time out between past and future, which brings radical changes because of the tensions, introspection and expectations found here

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They come to Italy from throughout the Middle East and Africa, looking for a better future. The young people have travelled thousands of miles, expelled, chased or fleeing from financial hardship.

The Case Famiglie – family houses – offer a temporary home for up to 8,000 young immigrants. It is a place organized for community living where young people, who are alone and culturally uprooted, are randomly thrown together. “I wanted to explore that special psychological moment of coming into adulthood which is experienced in social groups of young foreigners of the same age, as well as the impressions of each person’s individual path,” Alvaro Deprit explains.

The photographer can appreciate the situation based on his own experience.

The sixth child of eight siblings, he grew up in classic circumstances, with his four grandparents also living in the family home. “From a psychological and emotional perspective, my home was always an important place of refuge. It had a strong influence.” After finishing school in Madrid, Deprit studied in Bamberg, Germany, and Chieti, Italy.

“I’m a very curious person, which leads me to different themes and languages.”

A friend working as a translator in one of the Case Famiglie told Deprit about the set-up. “I was fascinated by the microcosm I found in the Case Famiglie, where I was soon able to connect with the young people. The fact that, like them, I am a foreigner in Italy was without a doubt helpful.” carla susanne erdmann

aLvaro deprIt Born in Madrid in 1977, Deprit studied German philology in Bamberg and Sociology in chieti. He has lived and worked in italy since 2004.

He has won, i .a., the British Journal of photography award and pHotoespaña Ojodepez award for Human Values. www.alvarodeprit.com

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Zwischen Nichts und Ewigkeit – Drei Aufsätze zur Lehre vom Menschen – the essay by the German sociologist Hans Jonas published first in 1963, gave alvaro Deprit the intellectual tools for his Suspension project.

He uses his camera to explore how the unusual social environment in the case Famiglie affects the youths’ behaviour

alvaro deprit | Finalis t 2014

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Finalis t 2014 | emeric lhuisset

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EmErIc LhuIssEt

thEatEr oF War Between war and acting, tableau vivant and reality, photography and painting: French photographer Emeric Lhuisset’s provocative series, Theater of War, plays with the viewers’ visual and receptive habits.

By cleverly blending documentation and staged images, he questions the validity and purpose of war photography.

The composition of lhuisset’s pictures is taken from battle scenes painted by French artists in the 19th century

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For a period of three years, emeric lhuisset returned time and again to a Kurdish guerilla camp in iraq, and worked with them to set up the staged photos. Two external flash lights served to add a more dramatic atmosphere to the images

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emeric lhuisset | Finalis t 2014

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emeric lhuisset | Finalis t 2014

left side: lhuisset copied the composition and the structure of edouard Detaille’s historical oil painting Paul et André Déroulède à Sedan from 1907 down to the smallest detail. The French photographer only had 15 minutes for pictures taken outside the training camp – the danger of enemy snipers lurks everywhere

Where does reality end and illusion begin? When does photography serve to document and when does it become art?

What is true and what is staged? Taking into consideration that a photographer frames images and configures an extract of reality, isn’t a photo already staged?

Emeric Lhuisset’s photos provoke these questions, although he sees himself as a visual artist rather than a photographer.

His studies of art and geopolitics are evident in his work; and his clever compositions tease the visual habits of the viewer. For his Theater of War series, Lhuisset met up with an Kurdish guerilla unit in Iraq that has long been fighting an armed battle against the regime and has a secret camp in the mountains.

Oil paintings by French artists such as Edouard Detaille and Alphonse de Neuville, with scenes from the GermanFrench war of 1870/71, served to define the scenes he staged with the guerillas.

The title of the series points to the book Vom Kriege (On War) written by military theorist Carl von Clausewitz between 1816 and 1830. For Lhuisset the most notable thing about the Prussian thinker was his use of theatre-related words such as scenery, performers, and act in his writings. Reality and fiction, documentation and staging, lie terrifyingly close to each other. Whether with words or images, meaning is easily cast aside or propaganda made with the theatrical application of photography. How much of a documentary can war photography actually be? katrin ullmann

emerIc LhuIsset Born in France in 1983, lhuisset studied visual arts and geopolitics in paris.

He lives in France and the Middle east.

Numerous international exhibitions as well as the publication of Maydan’s Hundred Portraits (andré Frère Éditions 2014). www.emericlhuisset.com

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ALFonso MorAL

shAdows oF TrIpoLI It is a reflection of the big civil war taking place in neighbouring Syria: Tripoli’s society is also divided into two camps. While the Alawites believe in President Baschar alAssad, the Sunnis primarily support the revolutionaries. It is evident that Syria’s dark shadow stretches far into Lebanon.

The centre of Tripoli. Burnt out houses frequently deface the streets, but life goes on for local residents

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Alfonso Mor Al | finAlis t 2014

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above: Out and about in Jabal Mohsen, Tripoli. about 60,000 people live here, isolated from the rest of the city; below: an invalid veteran in Bab al-Tibbaneh

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Alfonso Mor Al | finAlis t 2014

Burial of a Sunni fighter killed in Syria where he went to fight alongside the Free Syrian army.

The majority of Sunnis support the Syrian revolution and want to bring down assad

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Tripoli is barely 30 kilometres away from the Syrian border, and it seems as though Syria moved into Lebanon’s second largest city a long time ago. Lebanese Alawites support Syrian President Baschar al-Assad, who also belongs to this Shiite group. They live on the slopes of the Jabal Mohsen, where posters of Assad plaster the walls of houses, and where it is permitted to sell alcohol. Their opponents, the Sunnis, are located further down in the Bab al-Tibbaneh district – and they are convinced advocates of the Syrian revolution. The street that divides the two camps just happens to be called Syria Street.

“The conflict between Sunnis and Alawites has turned Tripoli into a miniature Syria,” says Alfonso Moral. The Spanish photographer has lived in Lebanon since 2012 and has repeatedly witnessed open confrontations there. Opponents shoot at each other from window to window, sometimes just 30 metres apart. “I’m showing a conflict that already ignited back in the civil war in Lebanon, and which is now reaching a climax. That’s also why I took the pictures in black and white. I wanted to visually link the current situation with the past,” Moral explains.

This resulted in images rich in contrast and visual contradictions, an interplay of sharp and blurry. Moral gets right into the thick of things. He’s a street photographer in the middle of a war, taking the viewer into both camps. Bombed out houses, amputated limbs – these are the pictures we know from Homs or Aleppo. Tripoli is now also part of Syria. katrin iwanczuk

ALFonso morAL Born in 1977 in Valladolid, Spain. Moral has been living in Beirut since 2012. published among others in Newsweek, The Sunday Times and le Monde.

Finalist for the prix carmignac Gestion of photojournalism and for the 2012 Magnum expression award 2010. www.alfonsomoral.net

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Alfonso Mor Al | finAlis t 2014

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ALIsA ResnIk

one AnotheR Alisa Resnik invites the viewer on an outing into an enigmatic reality. Camera in hand, she wanders the city of Berlin at night, taking in the city, its atmosphere, and its people. It is a poetic, but also unsettling, frightening world of muted colours, located somewhere between reality and fiction.

“The camera helps me initiate conversations with the people i want to photograph,� alisa Resnik explains

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alisa resnik | Finalis t 2014

Nightly encounters in Berlin, taking stock of a city in a process of change. The Russian photographer alisa Resnik has been living in the German capital since she was fourteen. “certainly, the simple wish to record something that will soon no longer exist, played a role in the idea behind One Another.�

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A woman peers into the night. Her mouth is slightly open as if she wants to say something. Her face is the only thing that is lit up, while everything around her remains in darkness. The Russian photographer Alisa Resnik prefers to take pictures at night. “I find the dark more poetic. At night the world is more photogenic than during the daytime,” she explains.

The art historian has been living in Berlin since 1990. She likes to take her camera and dive into a world caught between light and shadows: abandoned hallways, smoky bars, snow-covered cityscapes. They often include people whose eyes are either averted or looking straight at the viewer with a blank expression.

Who they are and what they do remains in the dark. Only parts of the pictures are illuminated, and appear as if they were taking place on a theatre stage. The neon light from a lift briefly lights up the scene.

Naked skin appears white and waxy in this series soaked in shades of green and blue.

“The colouring emerges from the atmosphere. I simply react to it,” says Resnik.

Resnik aims to capture the changes taking place in the German capital. Many of the older bars have closed; and many people who appreciated the improvised nature of the city are leaving. Resnik wants to preserve these moments. However, she considers the personal encounters more important than the actual pictures.

“The pictures emerge randomly. They will be judged later and will only be found of value if they respect the truth of the encounter.” katrin iwanczuk

ALIsA resnIk Born in St. petersburg in 1976, Resnik lives and works in Berlin.

Winner of the 2013 european publishers award, which led to the publication of the book One Another. Numerous exhibitions. Resnik is represented by the italian agency prospekt. www.alisaresnik.com

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alisa resnik | Finalis t 2014

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LeIca

Oskar Barnack award

2014 newcOmer award

aLejandrO cegarra

TOrre de davId 2500 people have occupied the Torre de David, a structure that was originally planned as an office building in the old city district of Caracas. Alejandro Cegarra managed to gain the occupiers trust, resulting in a reportage about a rather unusual housing community.

living in a skeleton building – children at play and fresh laundry in the middle of the grey sadness of an unfinished construction

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Ale jAndro cegArr A | 2014 leicA osk Ar BArnAck ne wcomer AwArd

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2014 Leica Osk ar Barnack ne wcOmer award | aLe jandrO cegarr a

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a tenant makes a gang hand sign (left); Genesis wants to study (above); guarding the parking levels (below)

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The Torre de David has 45 storeys and an unfinished helipad on top. So far, tenants have occupied to the 28th floor

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Ale jAndro cegArr A | 2014 leicA osk Ar BArnAck ne wcomer AwArd

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2014 Leica Osk ar Barnack ne wcOmer award | aLe jandrO cegarr a

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playing basketball in what was originally an auditorium. afraid the children may fall off, many parents only allow them to play within the home

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2014 Leica Osk ar Barnack ne wcOmer award | aLe jandrO cegarr a

An office building in the heart of the old city district of Caracas: 195 metres high, 45 floors, a place to do business.

David Brillembourg, a successful banker, commissioned the building plans and construction began in 1990. However, when his bank found itself in the country’s financial crisis, work on the skyscraper had to be stopped. Since then, the unfinished structure towers over the Venezuelan capital’s concrete jungle. Today it is disdainfully referred to as the Torre de David, the Tower of David.

Housing is short in Caracas, where more than half the population live in the poor barrios located on the city outskirts.

For most of the approximately six million inhabitants, a life closer to the centre is out of the question. It is hardly surprising, that for many the Torre de David represents the promise of a life that - while not good - is better than in the barrios, where drugs and violence are the order of the day. This has led some followers of the recently deceased President Hugo Chávez to occupy the building and turn the space into a place they now call home.

They total around 2,500 people, all convinced socialists who were full supporters of Commander Chávez. They pay rent to a collective, which decides who may move in, and who must move out due to stealing, prostitution or fighting with other tenants. Strong rules apply within the building’s unfinished walls. Many residents have normal professions, and some have even created a loose infrastructure within the tower. There are kiosks, hairdressers and the internet. The collective paid for the electricity, which was initially tapped into illegally. The twelve parking levels for tenants’ cars and motorbikes are guarded. Order reigns amid the chaos of the thrumming metropolis.

Many journalists have tried to gain access to the tower. Cegarra was also captivated by the idea of photographing the lives of the residents. After a number of failed attempts to contact someone responsible, he decided to simply step inside the building. There he met Elvys

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Marchan, a representative of the collective. They got talking and Cegarra finally gave Marchan his address. “I remember telling him, ‘I know where you live, now you know where I live.’” In a city with one of the highest murder rates in the world, that is a careless thing to do. “In fact, I thought, ‘by this time tomorrow you’ll have been kidnapped.’” However, things turned out differently. The next time Cegarra visited the Torre de David, the doors were thrown wide open.

Cegarra’s passion for photography developed from a fortuitous incident. His mother bought herself a camera but did not know how to use it. “If you can man-

age better, you can keep it,” she promised him. That was it. From that moment on, Cegarra has been a passionate photographer. After finishing his studies, he began working for a local newspaper. “I learned everything I know while working there,” Cegarra explains. It was the photo editor at the paper who mentioned the Leica Oskar Barnack Award to him.

Together they admired the pictures of the 2011 newcomer award-winner, Jing Huan from China; at that moment, Cegarra’s desire and will to win the award for his own pictures was born. It was exactly the motivation he needed to take that first step into the Torre de David.

ALLejAndro CegArrA Born in 1989 in caracas, Venezuela, where he still lives today. after studying photography, he worked as a photographer for the local newspaper Ultimas Noticias. allejandro cegarra started working freelance for the associated press in 2014. www.alecegarra.blogspot.com

a dog lying on the tower’s top floor.

The occupiers’ animals often get lost on the higher levels of the building

Missing windowpanes and railings – this is what visitors encounter when they enter the structure. People say a child fell off the building because there was no railing; an intoxicated person plummeted to the ground. On the 45th floor, a helipad still waits to be completed. Further down, broken glass is strewn over the floor. The façade was originally made out of glass and aluminium, but residents dismantled the metal to sell it off. Now there are big holes in the only side of the building that had been finished.

“It’s often hard to be a photographer in my home town – documenting the suffering of other people while leading a quiet life myself, has changed the way I see Caracas.” He chose to show this perspective in black and white contrasts, an interplay of light and darkness. Sometimes he captures the building from a distance, its severe graphic combination of squares and lines rising up like a mon-

ument. Other times he is closer to the people. They allow him to take portraits, to photograph children playing in bed or youths playing basketball. And they tell him about their dreams: Genesis wants to study so that she can provide her mother with a nicer house.

Cegarra is documenting another side to Caracas. Unexpectedly, behind the doors of a building in ruins, he is given a hearty welcome. “The biggest challenge was to gain the people’s trust. Nowadays I can call them my friends,” he explains.

“Behind every door there is life and beauty; yet it is also a reminder of the failed city that I live in.” It is Cegarra’s hope that his pictures will reveal the special side of everyday life. That’s why there are no stereotypical images about drugs, violence and suffering, but rather of people who laugh and open their doors to newcomers, in spite of the their distrust of strangers. They struggle to make themselves a life in the giant, concrete skeleton.

It is a life that - like Cegarra’s black and white pictures – includes many shades of grey. katrin iwanczuk

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2014 Leica Osk ar Barnack award

MartIn KoLLar

FIeLd trIp

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Finalist 2014

Finalis t 2014

Finalis t 2014

Francesco anseLmI

ben brody

patrIck wILLocq

XenIos Zeus

endgame aFgHanIstan

I am waLĂŠ respect me

each of this displays show the complete series submitted to the competition.

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Finalis t 2014

Finalis t 2014

Finalis t 2014

Max CabeLLo orCasItas

ILan godFrey

aLvaro deprIt

ChunguIs grIeF

LegaCy oF the MIne

suspensIon

each of this displays show the complete series submitted to the competition.

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Finalist 2014

Finalis t 2014

Finalis t 2014

emerIc LhuIsset

ALFOnsO mOrAL

ALIsA resnIk

theAter OF WAr

shAdOWs OF trIpOLI

One AnOther

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2014 Leica Osk ar Barnack ne wcOmer award

aLejandro cegarra

torre de davId

each of this displays show the complete series submitted to the competition.

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VIETNAM NAPALM GIrL

Capturing history for 100 years www.100years.leica-camera.com Special 3.2014 LFI

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