Alejandro Cegarra and Serghei Duve won this yearโs Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA). They were honoured during a ceremony this evening at the Leica headquarters in Wetzlar. The LOBA award presentation represented yet another highlight in the Leica centennial celebrations, during which Leicaโs history has been lauded under the motto โ100 Years of Leica: Witness to a Centuryโ.
In the 45th edition of the prestigious photography prize, the LOBA jury handed the main award to the
photographer Alejandro Cegarra for his series โThe Two Wallsโ. German photographer Serghei Duve was named as the winner in the LOBA Newcomer category for his series โBright Memoryโ.
Alejandro Cegarra โThe Two Wallsโ won against more than 300 submissions from a wide range of candidates, proposed by some 120 experts in around 50 countries to the LOBA jury. The Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award is bestowed in collaboration with 20 international institutions and universities from 17 countries.
Alejandro Cegarra: The Two Walls โ 2025 Leica Oskar Barnack Award Winner
Alejandro Cegarra was nominated by Columbian photographer Federico Rios Escobar, for his long-term project that saw him travel the borderland between the USA and Mexico. He draws attention to the plight of migrants and refugees and sheds light on their dramatic situation with his empathic black-and-white pictures.
In this series, Cegarra focuses on the struggles of migrants and their families who are suffering under harsh and inhumane conditions at Mexicoโs border. Alejandro Cegarra says: โI worked on this series from 2018 to January of this year and was always between the borders. I wanted to concentrate on humanity and universally human emotions. In total, I took 35,000 pictures โ of which I chose 20 for the LOBA series.โ
Moving between worlds
Alejandro Cegarra was born in Venezuela in 1989, and has lived in Mexico since 2017. He began his
career as a photographer in 2012 when he started working for Venezuelaโs biggest newspaper รltimas
Noticias. Since then, his work as a freelance photographer has been published by The New York Times,
Bloomberg, National Geographic, The New Yorker, The Washington Post and TIME.
He has received multiple awards, including the Getty Editorial Grant in 2017, as well as the Global Award for Long Term Projects from World Press Photo in 2019 and 2024. He has already won the Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award in 2014 for his series The Other Side of the Tower of David about squatters at an unfinished high-rise in Venezuelaโs capital Caracas. Cegarra has also been a LOBA nominator multiple times.
Serghei Duve: Bright Memory โ 2025 Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award
Through his very personal series โBright Memoryโ, the photographer Serghei Duve, who started life in
the Republic of Moldova, explores his familyโs enduring connection to Transnistria โ a territory that
declared independence from Moldova in 1990, yet remains unrecognised internationally and supported solely by Russia.
In his pictures, he tries to visualise the sentiment captured by the Russian expression โbright memoryโ, reflecting everyday life shaped by nostalgia and division. The series was nominated for the LOBA Newcomer category for young photographers up to the age of 30 by the Visual Journalism and Documentary Photography department at the Hochschule Hannover โ University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
Personal stories
Statement by Serghei Duve: โMy work is about telling personal stories, but also about laying everything
bare to draw attention to broader themes. I chose the title for this work after my grandfather died in
March 2023 and one of my relatives offered his condolences with precisely these Russian words:
โSwetlaja Pamiatโ. Even if itโs actually just a clichรฉ in Russian, these words touched me, and I found
them to be very appropriate.โ
Serghei Duve was born in Chiศinฤu, Moldova, in 1999. When he was one, his parents moved with their
family to Hanover, Germany. He went to preschool and school there while growing up with Russian
culture at home and speaking to his parents in Russian.
He became interested in photography at the age of ten when he was given a camera for his birthday. He began his studies in the Visual Journalism and Documentary Photography department at the Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts in 2021. In his projects, Duve explores identity and origin, often in connection with his roots and experience.
Statements from the jury
Jury statement by Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, Art Director and Chief Representative of Leica Galleries International: โThis yearโs Leica Oskar Barnack Award jury reached their decision with close consideration and a deep appreciation for photographyโs social impact. Alejandro Cegarraโs path is particularly moving; as a former winner of the Newcomer category, he returns with his impressive series ‘The Two Walls’ โ a work which highlights the topics of division, migration and human dignity with vivid imagery. His graduation from newcomer to the main category is a first in the history of the award and shows how photographic voices grow and are becoming more urgent than ever.โ
Jury statement by Felix Hoffmann, Curator at Foto Arsenal Vienna (Austria): โThe LOBA has established itself as a key reference point for the international photography scene, embodying quality, diversity and social relevance. The wide range of topics was striking this year: from very personal stories to global social issues.โ
Jury statement by Jane Evelyn Atwood, photographer and 1997 LOBA winner (USA/France): โThe LOBA is a highly prestigious award, widely recognised for its excellence. For those fortunate and talented enough to receive it, it marks an exceptional achievement. Winning the LOBA brings recognition, and people will likely see your work in a different light.โ
Jury statement by Curt Holtz, Photography and Architecture Editor at Prestel Publishing (Germany):
โThe selection of photographers and pictures was very diverse, coming from around the globe. I think the LOBA is very important, especially for photographers working in the field of documentary photography. But it could receive greater attention and become more well known, as many artists have not heard about it (yet) and could really benefit from it.โ
About LOBA
The LOBA is among the most renowned photography awards worldwide: the main LOBA prize is โฌ40,000 and Leica camera equipment worth โฌ10,000, whilst the winner of the LOBA Newcomer Award receives โฌ10,000 and a Leica Q3.
All the shortlisted LOBA series entries are now being presented at the Ernst Leitz Museum Wetzlar, with the support of WhiteWall, and in a comprehensive accompanying catalogue. Following the show in Wetzlar, the 2025 LOBA exhibition will be displayed at various Leica Galleries and featured at photography festivals.
Further information about this yearโs winners is available at: www.leica-oskar-barnack-award.com.
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