In 2025, Leica Camera AG is honouring the 100th anniversary of the Leica I. The programme celebrating the centenary includes worldwide exhibitions and events. In tribute to the region and city of Wetzlar, the birthplace of the Leica, numerous events will be held here over the course of the anniversary year. Among them, three prestigious exhibits at the Leitz Park will highlight the rich diversity of Leica photography: a solo show by Joel Meyerowitz, one of the most important and influential proponents of American street photography.

Gritty images of war, flight, oppression and poverty: this is the topic dominating work by French photographer and journalist Édouard Elias (born in 1991). He is part of a group of young photojournalists committed to bearing witness to social and humanitarian crises taking place all over the world. The Leica Gallery in Wetzlar is showing a selection of work from the photographer’s three most important series: Well 77, a reportage from the start of 2017 about the dramatic work to extinguish fires that had broken out at oil wells in Iraq. The second series, SOS Aquarius, was created in early 2016 on board the rescue ship Aquarius, which was attempting to save the lives of migrants in the Mediterranean who were attempting to reach Europe aboard ill-equipped boats. The images from the third series belong to a reportage from the Central African Republic, where Elias accompanied a group of Foreign Legionnaires who were deployed as part of a French mission during the brutal civil war that raged in the African country in 2014. Elias’ method is characterised by empathetic tenacity: he engages with topics, places and people intensively in order to avoid superficial, sensational reporting and to create an emotional connection with the protagonists of his photographs. His pictures show the resilience and courage of those who are confronted with adversity and bring their stories to the fore through his direct participation and personal experiences.

The exhibition was made possible with the kind support of WhiteWall.

Édouard Elias was born on 29 June 1991 in Nîmes, France, the son of an Egyptian father and a French mother. After living in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, for ten years, he moved back to France in 2009 to begin studying business, but transferred to the École de Condé in Nancy to study photography. During his studies, he began photographing Syrian refuges in Turkey and reporting on the situation in Syria without a commission. While pursuing this mission, he was taken hostage by Islamic State fighters on 6 June 2013 and held for 11 months. After this experience, he committed himself as a photographer even more intensely to humanitarian catastrophes and the world’s conflict areas. His latest reportage took him to Ukraine. His work has been published many times, and he has received several notable photography awards. Elias works with different Leica M-models: M2, M5, MP, M11-P and a Leica M Monochrom.

Monday to Sunday from 10 AM to 6 PM