For the 11th time, the nominees and winners of the LeadAwards are being presented in an exhibition, VisualLeader 2013, at Deichtorhallen Hamburg’s House of Photography. On show are photographic series, magazine photos, advertising ideas and websites – the best of what German magazines, newspapers and the Internet had to offer in 2012. The exhibition comprises all the winning work, work that has been commended with a medal or an award. Most of what is on display in the photographic section is large-format work by well-known, internationally acclaimed photographers from the fields of art, fashion and magazine photography such as Peter Lindbergh, Paul Graham, Andreas Mühe, Paolo Pellegrin, Eva Leitolf, Hans-Christian Schink, Max Vadukul or Werner and Ute Mahler, alongside works by the upcoming generation of aspiring talents, including Markus Jans, Jim Mangan, Pawel Jaszczuk, Jork Weismann, Max von Gumppenberg and Patrick Bienert. What is striking this year is the great diversity of compositions and the photographers’ viewpoints, which are often very personal ones.
A total of some 200 works from the creative scene are being shown over some 1,000 square meters, confirming once again that the LeadAwards have earned their reputation as Germany’s most important print and online prize. Furthermore, this year there are new developments and improvements in store at the LeadAwards: For the first time, an “Academy Prize” is being awarded. This accolade honors courage and innovation in the restructuring of traditional print titles in view of the changing face of media use. This year, the Newspaper segment, introduced last year, is covering an even wider area. Outstanding pieces in the exhibition from the fields of information graphics, visual storytelling and daring graphics can serve as exemplary in this respect.
The Advertising category has also been adapted to changing media usage and no longer rewards individual advertisements or commercials, but evaluates advertising ideas, independent of which media channels they are applied to. The relevant awards do not go to conventional campaigns, but to communicative happenings and cross-media events.
For the first time, there will also be an award for tablet magazines.
