Leica Camera USA Launches Initiative to Support Gender Diversity in Photography

The Leica Women Foto Project signifies an enhanced dedication to highlight the female perspective through various programming initiatives, including a new photography award

Leica Camera USA takes its longstanding appreciation of women in the photographic arts a step further with the announcement of the Leica Women Foto Project – a platform designed to support diversity and inclusion in photography through ongoing programs, events, and a new photography award dedicated to the Project that jointly serve to inspire narratives through the female perspective.  Leica recognizes that the shape of a story is reactive to the storyteller’s perspective, often leaving out those whose point of views are underrepresented. By amplifying the female perspective in photography, Leica aims to help provide a more dynamic and diverse view of the world around us.

“This importance of diversity in visual storytelling strengthens the integrity of our collective story,” says Kiran Karnani, Director of Marketing for Leica Camera North America. “Visual expressions through myriad lenses challenge and embrace ideas that drive important conversations. We enable growth through an expansion of thought when we actively support inclusivity through the photographic medium. With the Leica Women Foto Project, we aim to embolden photographers to think outside one’s own point of view, support underrepresented voices to speak their visual languages, and celebrate new ways of seeing.”

As part of the ongoing Leica Women Foto Project, Leica Camera USA is launching the inaugural Leica Women Foto Project Award, which will award three photographers $10,000 each to help enable the pursuit of a personal project. Candidates based in the United States who display the highest quality of photography, dedication to the medium of photography, sophistication of the project, as expressed through the female perspective with narratives that broaden perspectives, ideas, and conversations on today’s social climate, will be selected as winners.

In addition to the financial award, each winner will receive a one-year loan of a Leica Q2. At the end of the term, the cameras will be passed on to the next three winners of the 2020 award to continue the legacy. A replacement Leica camera will be offered to the initial set of recipients to continue documenting their journey through the lens of a Leica.

Photo entries will be reviewed by a panel of renowned judges including:

●      Karin Kaufmann, Art Director & Chief Representative, Leica Galleries International

●      Maggie Steber, VII Agency photographer and Guggenheim fellow

●      Elizabeth Avedon, photography book and exhibition designer, independent curator and writer

●      Laura Roumanos, executive producer and co-founder, United Photo Industries

●      Deborah Willis, university professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and author of Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery

Candidates for the award must be legal US residents and are requested to submit a series of 10 images from a personal or long-term project, made on any digital or film camera of any make, model or brand, with at least 4 images created between 2018-19. Alongside the images, applicants are required to submit a 500-word proposal describing their personal project and its relevance in today’s social climate, including detail of how the funds will be allocated.

Each submission will be scored by each judge individually based on the quality of photography, dedication to the medium of photography and sophistication of project. The three entrants with the highest total scores from all five judges will be declared the winners of the Award.

Call for entries begins today and closes on August 29, 2019. Applications for the Leica Women Foto Project Award can be submitted through the online registration form. Leica Camera USA will announce the three winning photographers on October 16 via http://bit.ly/Leica_Women and @leicacamerausa on Facebook and Instagram.

Kevin Raber
July 2019

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