Photography and street art are two of my favourite things and Berlin street art has to among the best. I was invited to Berlin to meet the finalists of the prestigious LOBA Awards and to try my hand at photographing street art with the Leica TL2. Housed in a stylish yellow leather case, it’s an intriguing mix of retro style and modern technology. There are touch screen controls and high tech features such as Wi-Fi transfer and 4x video. I loved the slow-mo effect when filming! Paul and I have long been fans of Leica lenses for their precision but I’d never tried a Leica camera before. All their cameras are handmade at their factory in Germany and the quality really shows. I’d had a tutorial at Leica’s Mayfair store on Bruton Place but thankfully it’s easy to use once you get the hang of it. Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2017
First we had the chance to interview the winners, Terje Abusdal and Sergey Melnitchenko, at the gallery exhibition in Neue Schule für

Photografie. The overall winner of the awards, Terje Abusdal, has documented the lives of the Finnskogen ethnic group in Norway. His series, “Slash and Burn” portrays the lives of the Finnish descendants, also known as Forest of the Finns. Their 17th century ancestors originally used slash and burn techniques to clear agricultural land and the photos have an eery quality, reflecting their former shamanic rituals.

Sergey Melnitchenko won the Newcomer award and got into photograp...