Leica Announces its Women Foto Project Award Winners
Leica Camera has announced the winners of the third annual Leica Women Foto Project Award in partnership with Fotografiska and VII Photo Agency, with the aim of expanding diverse representation in photography and empowering the female point of view.
Leica continues its commitment to fostering representation and inclusion of all perspectives in the photography industry with the Leica Women Foto Project as part of its initiatives.
Leica Foto Project Award Winners
The diverse panel of judges, ranging from award-wining photojournalists to renowned contributors to the world of photography, selected three award winners: Rania Matar, Rosem Morton, and September Bottoms.
Each winner receives $10,000, a Leica SL2-S camera with Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-70mm f/2.8 ASPH lens, and a four-week photography exhibition at the Fotografiska museum venue in New York. Starting from March 8, 2022, the exhibition will also feature the work of this year’s Leica Oscar Barnack Award winner, Ana Maria Arévalo.
As part of Leica’s goal to amplify the female perspective, the company will also host the Leica Women Summit on March 12 and March 13, 2022, in the same venue. The two-day-long event comprises various multi-platform programs which aim to inspire conversation on the photo industry and reframe the narrative.
“The third annual Leica Women Foto Project Award underscores our ongoing commitment to diversity in visual storytelling,” says Kiran Karnani, VP of Marketing for Leica Camera North America. “Our winners this year demonstrated extraordinary skill, grace, bravery, creating works that are as daring as they are vital.”
Winners of the Mentor Program
This year, Leica also partnered with VII Photo Agency to introduce “The Leica Women Foto Project x VII Mentor Program,” which provides resources to help enrich the professional development of up-and-coming female photographers. The Mentor program was first launched by the VII Photo Agency in 2008 to support early-career photographers and has been since redesigned in 2021 in partnership with VII Academy.
The three mentees who will receive the support are Brooklyn Kascel, Jackie Malloy, and Natalia Neuhaus who all demonstrated their commitment to the profession of photography and a published body of work.
They will receive a year-long photography mentorship, VII Agency representation, a Leica Gallery exhibition, and a year-long loan of a Leica Q2 camera to assist their professional photographic development.
Update: A previous version of this story misidentified Natalia Neuhaus. We apologize for the error.
Image credits: Photos individually credited. Featured article image by Rania Matar.