An update from Leica USA regarding coronavirus (COVID-19):
“Here at Leica, our philosophy can be summarized in two words: Das Wesentliche – a focus on the essentials. As we navigate through these challenging times which impact how we see and interact with our world, we are reminded of the true meaning of our ethos, a focus on what is truly essential – the health and well-being of our community. As such, we have made the difficult decision to temporarily close our stores and galleries across the country to do our part to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. As of March 20th, we will also temporarily close our Customer Care Service Center, Online Store, and our Corporate Offices.
Our Leica Akademie workshops, Leica Gallery openings and Leica Store events scheduled through May 5, 2020 are postponed. We are reassessing dates as needed based on the most current information and will keep you informed of updates via our social media channels and our website.
While we shift our adventures to the landscape of our imagination, we at Leica remain at your service to answer questions, exchange visual stories, and provide you with inspiration to support your passion for photography.”
A message from Dr. Andreas Kaufmann (Chairman of Supervisory Board):
Dear friends of Leica,
Dear Leica family,As we are friends all over the world, we all are now living for a certain time – hopefully not too long! -under conditions which most of our generation never have encountered! This is challenging us as individuals and as members of our societies. We have to follow strict rules to encounter the Corona crisis. We need to do this for ourselves, our children, our parents, our fellow citizens and our fellow human beings!
Looking ahead, it could evoke a feeling in us that we are human beings all together and that we are more or less in the same boat, feeling more responsible for each other.
Since the outbreak, we at Leica Camera are continuously undertaking all necessary precautions that operations can still work, that our employees, our customers are safe. We did set up a global crisis management team in daily, ally contact with the Board of Management to take very quick decisions. However, we will face interruptions in our supply chain, and a lot of stores worldwide have temporarily closed their personal operations.
In the time ahead, when a lot of us have to live under the conditions of a reduced social life, home office, partially out of work etc., also gives us an opportunity to rebalance our lives, to rethink things and perhaps winding down a bit.
For all our Leica friends, maybe we all should use these days to follow our passion, the art of photography, perhaps to enhance our skills, to sort out the pictures which we always wanted to sort out but did not have the time to, to prepare a new project, to start perhaps macro-photography, digitise analogue pictures and so on. My strong belief is – if we do something which we really love to do, we can experience additional emotional strength – and maybe, when the crisis is over, we can see new portfolios, new skills, and great pictures! In the meantime let’s use social media to share what we are shooting!
I hope that all of you are safe, try to stay safe. I look forward to hearing, after it is over, that all of you are healthy, again unconditionally enjoying the art of photography, or, as we say at Leica: DAS WESENTLICHE!
All the best for you and your families,
Dr Andreas Kaufmann
Chairman of Supervisory Board
Leica Camera AG
