Leica Camera brings exhibition to photo festival in Xiamen

With the 9th Jimei Arles International Photo Festival in full swing in Xiamen, East China's Fujian province, one of its exhibits has attracted much attention.

Leica Camera, a German manufacturer of high-end cameras and optical lenses, unveiled Light and Shadows, a themed exhibition of the 2023 Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA), one of the world's most prestigious photography prizes, on Sunday at the Three Shadows Photography Art Center's Xiamen space.

The exhibit marks the debut of Leica Camera at the photo festival, which was co-initiated in 2015 by the Three Shadows Photography Art Center, the first contemporary art space dedicated exclusively to photography in China; and the Rencontres d'Arles, the "Cannes Film Festival of the photography world".

On show are more than 40 works from four photography series shortlisted for the award: the "Sea Beach" series by Bangladeshi photographer Ismail Ferdous, winner of this year's LOBA Main Award; the "New Comer" series by Chinese photographer Le Ziyi, winner of the LOBA New Comer Award, a prize reserved for photographers under the age of 30; Brazilian photographer Gustavo Minas's "Liquid Cities" series; and French photographer and photojournalist Eric Bouvet's "Elevations" series.

Le was the second Chinese photographer to scoop the LOBA New Comer Award after Huang Jing did in 2011. His winning series features a group of portraits he took beginning in 2020, capturing the loneliness, anxiety and alienation seen among young people who left their hometowns to work and live in other cities.