Available exclusively at Leica Galleries around the world: the Leica Picture of the Year 2024 by renowned photographer Herlinde Koelbl

This year, Leica Picture of the Year collectors can look forward to an enchanting motif by German photographer Herlinde Koelbl. The limited edition print, which is only available at Leica Galleries, is taken from her Metamorphoses series. The fascinating and colourful images capture the beauty of transience.

The German photographer’s most recent series is dedicated to nature: “In the long line of my projects, this is the first time that there are no people to be seen. Yet the main theme that characterizes my work has remained: change, transience,” Koelbl (*1939) says, speaking about the series that she has been putting together for almost ten years now. The motif that has been selected as Leica Picture of the Year 2024 does a wonderful job of demonstrating this approach: the shapes, colours and structures of the plants become visible in close-up, appearing mysterious, magical and abstract in the camera’s frame. Captured in the process of wilting, Koelbl’s precise compositions give the plants a whole new level of reality and perception. Another beauty emerges during the process of fading – nothing remains as it is. “A kind of visual archaeology that overlaps or even collides with the images or ideas we think we know,” the photographer muses. “The present and the past flow into each other. And in reappearance lies the future.”

Precise observation defines Koelbl’s work, and for many decades now she has been considered one of Germany’s most renowned and important photographers. Inducted this year into the Leica Hall of Fame, she is also known as an experienced author, versatile artist and sensitive chronicler of her times: in the last five decades she has produced an unequalled and multi-layered body of work. She devotes herself intensely to her subjects and publishes her long-term studies mostly in book form, and often complemented by extensive exhibitions. Some of her projects have also resulted in documentary films. Her sensitive and often philosophical interviews have appeared regularly in the ZEITmagazin. Her 35mm-range work is primarily carried out with Leica cameras, and her medium format with a Hasselblad. Koelbl has published more than 20 photo books and has received numerous awards, including the Medal of Excellence (1987), the Dr Erich Salomon Prize of the DGPh (2001), the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2009) and the Bavarian Order of Merit (2013). She lives and works in Neuried near Munich.

Since 2021, Leica Camera AG has dedicated the Leica Picture of the Year to outstanding Leica photographers who have been inducted into the Leica Hall of Fame. This year Herlinde Koelbl is being honoured with the award for her lifetime achievements. In order to share a bit of this success with all Leica fans, a Leica Picture of the Year is chosen each year. It will be available exclusively at the 29 Leica Galleries worldwide. This opens up the possibility for collectors and Leica friends to create a unique collection of limited edition, great Leica photographs. Following Ralph Gibson, Thomas Hoepker and Elliott Erwitt, this year’s Leica Picture of the Year is by Herlinde Koelbl.

Leica Picture of the Year 2024

• Herlinde Koelbl
• Untitled, from the Metamorphoses series, 2017
• Print: Hahnemühle FineArt Pearl printed by WhiteWall
• The realisation of the print is kindly supported by WhiteWall.
• Page size: 40 × 50 cm (15.75″ × 19.69″), Motif size: 28,6 x 38,1 cm (11,26″ × 15″)
• Signed and including edition number
• Comes with certificate of authenticity, edition number and decorative folder
• Limited edition: 87
• Available exclusively in all Leica Galleries
• Price: 1050 euros (netto)
• On sale as of December 2024

The Leica Hall of Fame Award

Pictures that have touched the world, moments that remain unforgotten: Leica Camera AG has been inducting outstanding photographers into the Leica Hall of Fame since 2011 – artists whose vision of the world has moved something, has changed something. Timeless iconic images that reveal the conditio humana, and have become part of our collective memory, offer testimony to their creativity. Steve McCurry was the first photographer honoured with the Leica Hall of Fame Award in 2011. He was followed by Barbara Klemm, Nick Út, René Burri, Thomas Hoepker and Ara Güler. In 2016, the award was granted to Joel Meyerowitz, in 2017 to Gianni Berengo Gardin; and, in 2018, to Bruce Davidson and Jürgen Schadeberg. In 2019, Walter Vogel was honoured; followed by Ralph Gibson in 2021 and Elliott Erwitt last year. With Herlinde Koelbl, the number of members inducted into the Leica Hall of Fame has risen to 14.

Credits:

• Leica Picture of the Year 2024: © Herlinde Koelbl
• Portrait: Herlinde Koelbl © Johannes Rodach