This year, Leica are celebrating 100 years since the first Leica (The Leica 1A) went into production. There have been a series of events around the world, but the pinnacle was the celebration at Wetzlar from 26-28 June 2025,
The first Leica celebration I attended was in 2014, to celebrate 100 years of Leica photography, and 60 years of the Leica M. A manhole cover was installed at the spot where Oskar Barnack took his iconic picture of Zur Alten Münze in 1914 with the Ur-Leica. This was also a celebration of the opening of Leitz Park; the main building was there, but there were marquees where the Leitz Hotel was yet to be built.
Of course there was another celebration at Leitz Park in 2018 when the Leitz Hotel opened and also Leica Welt, with its shop and museum, gallery and archives. So, two celebrations for the opening of Leitz Park, and now two for 100 years of Leica Camera!
On the road
For my journey to this year’s important centennial, I was doing some celebrating of a different kind. Back in April I made a bit of a financial indiscretion and bought a Porsche 911 Cabriolet — I had always wanted one, and egged on by my children (and others) I fell in love with, and then bought, a low-milage 991.2 from 2017 (black with a tan leather inside).
One of the eggers-on had been Wayne Goodman — who had himself bought a lovely 996 Cabriolet 4S earlier in the year. We had both been invited to the Leica 100 celebrations in Wetzlar at the end of June, and we thought it would be fun to make it into a road trip. The weather was set fair (a heat wave indeed) and so it was decided.
Wayne came for dinner with us in Suffolk, after which we headed to Harwich to catch the overnight ferry to the Hook of Holland. I’ve done this a few times for work and have learned that it’s great to avoid the temptation of staying up late boozing… They wake you up at 6 am Dutch time (5 am UK time). One thing led to another, and we finally headed to bed at 1.30 after a few glasses of wine.
Setting off from the ferry, the first stop was to see Elmar Streyl’s excellent exhibition at the law courts in Dusseldorf — he puts so much thought and consistency into his work, and then he bought us lunch!
After lunch we set off for Wetzlar, Wayne and I in our Porsches looking forwards to the autobahn and Elmar in his sensible car. I don’t know how fast I drove as I was too scared to look at the dials when I went over 200km an hour. At any rate, Elmar got there first in his sensible car!
Wetzlar Dom concert
The opening event of the celebration was a concert at the Wetzlar Dom with the Ensemble Bella Musica, Salzburg and the Leica Choir. Trumpeter and Leica photographer Till Broenner was a special guest. The concert was compered by Karin Rehn-Kaufmann who gave a speech of welcome (and also sang in the choir).
Admission to the cathedral started at 5.30, and the 800 people invited gathered slowly in the Dom Platz outside the cathedral. It was lovely to meet up again with old friends from previous celebrations. There were photographers and influencers and Leica employees from around the world, together with representatives of Leica’s partners (Sigma for example). Once inside the cathedral, a section of which is open to the air, guests were plied with drinks before sitting down for the concert itself at seven.
After the concert there was a barbecue in the grounds of the cathedral with a band and all that you could eat and drink. The Leica contingent went missing as they had a private celebration of CEO Matthias Harsch’s birthday. The rest of us buckled down and ate and drank our fill.
Returning to the hotel after the meal we found the bar was still open, and stayed up chatting until the wee hours.
Thursday morning (June 26) saw the official opening of the celebrations. There were speeches by Dr Andreas Kaufmann, Matthias Harsch and Dr. Oliver Nass, who is in charge of the Ernst Leitz foundation.
100 Year Celebration Editions
After this Karin Rehn-Kaufman and Stefan Daniel together presented the Centenary special editions. Some of these were limited and some are not! What they all have in common is an emphasis on the nickel and glossy black finish of the original Leica 1A
The M11-D Anniversary set was in the pride of place — It is a two lens set, one is a modern Leica Summilux-M 50 f/1.4 Asph, and the other is the historically significant Leitz Anastigmat-M 50 f/3.5.
This is a fascinating lens. The Leica 1 came with a fixed version of it. This modern reissue has an M mount, but otherwise it faithfully preserves the original lenses shape, dimensions, engravings and its retractible design. I must say I hope that they bring this out as a series production, I’m certain a lot of us would very much like one!
The camera has a brass top plate with a high-gloss lacquer and nickel coloured anodised controls with the classic double knurling. It also has a streamlined design without eyelets for straps, possibly inconvenient for day to day use, but as there are only 100 sets I can’t see that too many people will want to be slinging them around their shoulders. The lenses are also numbered.
The ‘standard’ sets are numbered from 001 to 100, however one extra set is numbered 000, and this camera has the serial number 6000000, the six millionth production camera from Leica. Furthermore, in it is the millionth M camera made since 1954. This special camera was presented to the Kaufmann family in recognition of their contribution to the Leica company and the whole family came up on stage to receive it. The set will be auctioned by them in aid of charity.
There is a lovely video presented by Stefan Daniel which you can view here:
In addition to the M11-D set there are special editions of the Leica D-Lux 8 which looks splendid in glossy black and nickel, The Leica Sofort 2 instant camera and the Leica Trinovid 10×40 binoculars.
Each of these can be purchased from Leica stores or online, I’m trying to decide whether to get the D-Lux 8 or the Trinovid binoculars!
Three Exhibitions
On Thursday afternoon Karin Rehn-Kaufmann opened three new exhibitions to celebrate the centenary.
Édouard Elias
The first of these was of one of a new generation of young war photographers committed to covering humanitarian crises around the world.
His exhibition is divided into three stunning sub-sections:
Well 77 is where he dramatically documents the attempts to put out Oil wells burning in Iraq early in 2017
In the second, SOS Aquarius, he accompanied the rescue ship Aquarius which was trying to save boat migrants making the dangerous crossing from Africa to Europe.
The third set was made in 2014 in the Central African Republic where he was embedded with a unit of Foreign Legionnaires, whose daily lives he documented.
Here is a link to a Leica piece about the exhibition.
Jamie Callum
The singer/songwriter Jamie Callum was interviewed onstage by Karin Rehn-Kaufmann about his passion for photography and much else.
His exhibition “These are the Days” is also in the foyer at Wetzlar and here is the Leica piece about his work.
Joel Meyerowitz
The final exhibition is a stunning retrospective of the work of Joel Meyerowitz called “The Pleasure of Seeing” which is in the Ernst Leitz museum.
Gala Event at the Buderus Arena
On Thursday evening there was a grand (and excellent) dinner. Drinks were served and photographs were taken in the foyer, after the dinner there were speeches from Andreas Kaufmann and others, and we were shown a preview of a new documentary by Reiner Holzemer in which there are interviews with a number of Leica photographers, most of whom were there for a group photograph on stage after the screening.
The film has not been released yet, but is well worth watching. There were also two private showings at Rencontres d’Arles 2025 photo festival.
After the film, Jamie Callum played a fine set which was much photographed Festivities carried on upstairs late into the night (and in the bar of the Leitz Hotel as well).
Panel Discussion
On the Friday morning (June 27th) there was a lively and inspiring panel discussion in the Leica Foyer:
Seeing Clearly: Photographic Truth in Times of Change
Dominic Nahr was the moderator whilst Jane Evely Atwood, Joel Meyerowitz, Sarah Lee and Steve McCurry were the panelists. For me, this was the highpoint of the whole event; all the panel were fascinating, and they came at Photographic Truth from very different perspectives.
The one thing they all agreed on was that they do not plan their pictures, but catch them as they happen.
The 46th Leitz Photographica Auction
After the panel discussion it was time for the auction. William Fagan has reported on this in Macfilos , with the results in a separate article. It was very exciting, even for someone like me who had no intention of bidding!
Lot 8 was Leica 0-Serie No 112. This was one of only 22 prototypes which were made of the Leica 1. Probably only about half of them still exist today. No 112 was delivered directly to Oskar Barnack.
In 2022 at the 40th Leitz Photographica Auction, number 105 was sold for a world record (for a camera) of €14,4 million. So there was much excitement around no 112.
In the end there were two telephone bidders left, and the camera went for €6 million — which was €7.2 million with the buyer’s premium.
After the auction there were a number of talks in Museum block, Notably one on the history of the M rangefinder by Peter Karbe and another of Stefan Daniel’s excellent presentations.
Celebrations continued long into the night, but sadly I had to head for home, a lovely sunny journey to Calais and the Channel Tunnel, home in Suffolk in time for a late supper.
It was an exciting and exhausting schedule, and a real privilege to have been invited, Porsche and all!
| MORE FROM JONATHAN SLACK | |
| Jono’s reviews and tests on Macfilos | Jono’s website with more reviews and images |
| Review of the Leica SL3-S |
Join the Macfilos subscriber mailing list
Our thrice-a-week email service has been polished up and improved. Why not subscribe, using the button below to add yourself to the mailing list? You will never miss a Macfilos post again. Emails are sent on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 8 pm GMT. Macfilos is a non-commercial site and your address will be used only for communications from the editorial team. We will never sell or allow third parties to use the list. Furthermore, you can unsubscribe at any time simply by clicking a button on any email.