The Leica Picture of the Year was captured by Joel Meyerowitz on the fringes of the Puerto Rican Day Parade — an enduring celebration that remains a fixture in New York City’s annual parade calendar. Dating from 1963, the image portrays four women, gathered in a shop doorway on Fifth Avenue, absorbed in the process of perfecting their make-up.
Since 2021, Leica Camera AG has been awarding the Leica Picture of the Year to outstanding Leica photographers who have been inducted into the Leica Hall of Fame.
The motif titled “Puerto Rican Day Parade, Manhattan, New York 1963” has now been selected as Leica Picture of the Year 2025. It is part of Joel Meyerowitz’s early photographic work and will be released as a limited-edition print, available exclusively at all Leica Galleries worldwide from December 2025.
The photographer
Born in 1938, Joel Meyerowitz has been among the most influential photographers in the United States since the 1960s. His street photography shots are unmistakable, with colour playing an essential role as a design element.
In summer 2025, the Ernst Leitz Museum hosted the brilliant retrospective The Joy of Seeing, featuring 100 motifs from his body of work, and as part of Leica’s 2025 anniversary celebrations — with the motto “100 Years of Leica: Witness to the Century” — Meyerowitz was invited to curate 100 of his finest images.
This year’s Leica Picture of the Year has been chosen from that collection.
A celebration of Puerto Rican culture
Since 1959, the Puerto Rican Day Parade has been an expression of self-confidence and celebration of Puerto Rico’s rich culture and history, particularly for the millions of people of Puerto Rican descent living across the United States. Every second Sunday in June, the parade winds its way through Manhattan, drawing throngs of spectators.
Amid the parade’s pulsating hustle and bustle, Meyerowitz’s presence went completely unnoticed, allowing him to respond instinctively to the flood of impressions around him. Was it the colours of people’s clothes, their hairstyles, their shoes that caught his eye?
For him, photographing on the street became a form of visual training. As Meyerowitz explains: “One of the very first things I learned working on the street was that when the moment arrives, you simply make a picture of the moment.” The image of the four women thus speaks volumes about perception and spontaneity, and can still be viewed today as a document of the times.
Following in their footsteps
The Leica Picture of the Year is available exclusively from the 27 Leica Galleries around the world. This offers all collectors and Leica enthusiasts the opportunity to build up a unique collection of excellent Leica photographs with the limited editions.
Following in the footsteps of Ralph Gibson, Thomas Hoepker, Elliott Erwitt and Herlinde Koelbl, Joel Meyerowitz, who has been a member of the Leica Hall of Fame since 2016, now joins this prestigious group with his Leica Picture of the Year.
The photograph will be issued in a limited edition of 81 prints, available exclusively at all Leica Galleries, price: €1,250 (net).
Leave a reply and join in the discussion
The comments section below every article is a friendly, non-confrontational space where you can air your views without fear of stirring the sort of hornets’ nest that is so often a feature of websites. We welcome your views on the content of our articles, and your opinions on all aspects of photography are a lifeblood for Macfilos. Please let us know, in the section below, if you agree or disagree with our authors’ opinions — and please have no hesitation in adding your advice if you think we’ve overlooked anything important.