Twelve photographers now stand between the shortlist and one of the most coveted trophies in documentary photography. An international jury has narrowed the field for the 46th Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA), whittling down a pool nominated by 130 experts across 48 countries — each of whom could submit up to three photo series.
The award has celebrated exceptional photographic storytelling every year since 1980, and this edition adds something new: the jury has also chosen the first-ever recipient of the LOBA Women Grant, whose work will be showcased next year. The winners of the Main Prize, the Newcomer Award and the Women Grant will all be revealed on October 8, 2026, at a ceremony in Wetzlar, Germany. For now, only the Main Prize finalists have been unveiled.
And what a spread it is. Water runs like a thread through several projects. Taiwanese-American photographer Elliot Ross examines the fraught water supply of the Navajo Nation in A Question of Balance, contrasting a 2.4-hectare desert swimming pool with a 90-year-old woman who has no running water. Annie Sakkab, a Palestinian-Jordanian photographer, turns the subject inward in We Used to Watch the Rivers Go By, framing scarcity as a story about people and heritage. Anush Babajanyan documents the collapse and slow recovery of the Aral Sea in The Aral Sea and the Battered Waters of Central Asia.
Conflict features heavily too. Palestinian photojournalist Saher Alghorra presents Witnessing Gaza, moving from headline moments to the intimate stories that never make the news. Russian photographer Valery Melnikov returns to the ruins of Mariupol in Mariupol — Open Wounds, drawing on a career spent in Chechnya, Georgia, Lebanon and Syria.
Elsewhere, the shortlist leans into tradition and place:
- Todd Antony — Buzkashi, stark black-and-white images of the ancient Central Asian horseback sport in Tajikistan.
- Damir Faizulin — Preserving Nature as Preserving Ourselves, life alongside nature in mountainous Dagestan.
- William Keo — Extramuros, a portrait of creativity and hardship in the Paris banlieues.
- Slava Lyu-fa — Inner Distance, survival in Russia’s Arctic communities.
- Benedikt Renč — Cairo, documenting a city he believes will soon change beyond recognition.
- David Sládek — People of Šumiac, a long-term black-and-white study of a Slovakian village divided by a creek.
The Newcomer Award, meanwhile, draws from photographers nominated by experts at 28 institutions across 18 countries. Detailed presentations of the finalists will roll out over the coming weeks — but the real drama arrives in Wetzlar this October.
