Photography meets science at the Leica Summit Switzerland

On April 27, 2024, we attended the Leica Summit Switzerland at the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern. The main reason for this was that we are currently making the visual language of the Branco Weiss Fellowship more direct and authentic. The event gave us the unique opportunity to discuss the new reportage photos from the Fellows’ research with professional photographer Xiomara Bender from Berlin. Many thanks to Xiomara for her valuable tips! The event also offered plenty of other inspiration: photographer Michael Schär demonstrated in a live shoot with model Noemi Leibinn how high-end beauty portraits can be altered by subtly adjusting the lighting (see photo). Marco Wolff used the Leica Q3, which is also used by science communications, for live shoots with dancers Nina Ritter and Ladina Whitehead. In the keynotes, Karin Rehn-Kaufmann spoke about the criteria for the Leica Oskar Barnack Awards and Inas Fayed, editor-in-chief of LFI, about what distinguishes good pictures from bad ones. Xiomara Bender presented her new book “Ten Years in North Korea,” and Dominic Nahr from NZZ spoke about “Reportage Photography in Everyday Life.”