Leica Women Foto Award 2025 Winners Showcase ‘Unity Through Diversity’
On International Women’s Day, Leica announced the four winners of its sixth annual Leica Women Foto Project Award. Each winner’s work embodies this year’s theme, “Unity Through Diversity,” and showcases incredible photographic skills and the power of visual storytelling.
This year’s awardees are American photographer Priya Suresh Kambli, Canadian Jennifer Osborne, Mexican photographer Koral Carballo, and Anna Neubauer of the United Kingdom. They were selected by a panel of acclaimed and notable judges, including award-winning photojournalists, and each winner will receive a Leica SL3 camera, Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-70mm f/2.8 ASPH lens, and $10,000.
Further, as part of the 100th anniversary celebration of the Leica I, the next Women Foto Award, the seventh annual edition in 2026, will be integrated into the renowned Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA), which is celebrated each fall at Leica World in Wetzlar, Germany, Leica’s headquarters.
“Each year, our expansive applicants continue to inspire the community through reflection and celebration,” says Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, Art Director. “Each year, our expansive applicants continue to inspire the community through reflection and celebration,” says Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, Art Director and Chief Representative of Leica Galleries International. “The Leica Women Foto Project draws remarkable talent that showcases individuality at the forefront of their work. Each artist selected as an awardee has such a unique approach to photography and how it resonates with their own narrative. I am very pleased to integrate the Leica Women Foto Project into LOBA as a third independent and important category. It is essential to provide visibility and support to emerging female talents in photography.”
Let’s now look closer at each of the four Leica Women Foto Project 2025 award winners and their powerful work.
Priya Suresh Kambli (United States) — ‘Archive as Companion’
Priya Suresh Kambli’s profoundly personal work focuses on the migrant experience.
“Inspired by an exhibition of vernacular hand-painted Indian studio portraits from The Alkazi Foundation, [Kambli] began intervening with her family archive to explore themes of identity, memory, and belonging,” Leica explains.
Over the past 20 years, the photographer has revisited, reimagined, and recontextualized various family portraits and heirlooms, crafting an archive that creates a throughline between her ancestral roots and her adopted land.
Through her photography, Kambli reflects upon absence, loss, family dynamics, and how people document their lives and connections.
Jennifer Osborne (Canada) — ‘Fairy Creek’
Canadian photographer Jennifer Osborne’s “Fairy Creek” series provides viewers with an up-close and personal look at the Fairy Creek protests, where activists worked to protect old-growth forests on Vancouver Island.
“Osborne began documenting life within the protest blockades a week before enforcement began, capturing the raw, unfiltered moments of those first days,” Leica writes. “She continued to document the protests for the first three months of enforcement, witnessing firsthand the courage and commitment of the activists.”
Through her photos, Osborne highlights the solidarity and determination of the diverse activists, who together participated in one of Canada’s largest ever acts of civil disobedience.
Koral Carballo (Mexico) — ‘Blood Summons’
Koral Carballo’s photo essays combine photography and oral history to explore the concept of identity among Afro-descendant and mestizo communities in Veracruz, Mexico.
Carballo’s work uncovers family trauma and invites viewers to consider their own past. The project’s name, La Sangre Llama, or “Blood Summons” in English, is a popular Mexican saying that refers to the call people feel to search for their ancestors.
“With this work, Carballo calls for reparation, aiming to foster connection rather than division, and invites viewers to engage with these stories and their own histories,” explains Leica.
Anna Neubauer (United Kingdom) — ‘Ashes from Stone’
Neubauer’s ongoing project, “Ashes from Stone,” portrays those who don’t conform to societal norms of beauty, strength, or identity. Through her portraits, Neubauer shows people from all walks of life in empowered settings, helping to amplify historically marginalized voices and invite viewers to reconsider their views of femininity and strength.
“The project challenges stereotypes, redefines beauty, and embraces narratives around family, relationships, and motherhood,” Leica writes.
Each image is accompanied by a personal narrative, helping viewers connect further with the portrait subjects.
Image credits: All photos provided by Leica and individual photographers are credited in the captions.
