LEICA CAMERA AG AND FCDA ANNOUNCE COOPERATION

Solms, Germany (July 6, 2011) - Leica Camera AG announces a multi-faceted collaboration with Facing Change: Documenting America (FCDA), a non-profit collective of prominent photographers and writers who have come together to explore the United States during one of the most enduring times in the nation’s history. Sharing a commitment to supporting independent documentary photography, Leica and FCDA will present a number of photographic projects to be featured online on at www.leica-camera.com and www.facingchange.org, as well as in LFI Magazine, books and travelling exhibitions beginning in July 2011.

These presentations will not only serve as photographic documentaries but also inspire and highlight debate on the national stage. Thought provoking projects include a story by Alan Chin from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, exploring the reactions of the crowd that spontaneously gathered after the killing of Osama Bin Laden was announced late at night on May 1, 2011. Under this partnership, Leica Camera AG will also create a series of independently produced multimedia essays. These essays will highlight the personal journeys of the photographers as they travel and generate images using the latest Leica equipment, providing an opportunity to learn from the FCDA photographers and share in their personal experiences.

FCDA was founded in 2009 by Pulitzer Prize winning photographers, Lucian Perkins and Anthony Suau. The organization focuses on America's diversity and covers social and political issues including immigration, the mortgage crisis, obesity and the war on terror.

“Inspired by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) of the 1930s, FCDA is creating an extensive archive with the most talented photographers and journalists currently working in the US. We are sincerely honored to have Leica cameras and lenses travelling beside us on this important journey and we proudly embrace Leica’s newest technologies,” states FCDA President, Co-Founder and Leica Photographer Anthony Suau.

“Leica has always been closely linked with the names of the greatest photographers of our times. Many world famous photographs documenting history in the making were captured with Leica cameras,” said Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Leica Camera AG. “It is therefore only natural that we have now entered into a collaborative venture with a group of photographers dedicated to documentary photography. We are very much looking forward to the joint projects and images that tell fascinating stories.”

The photographers of Facing Change: Documenting America are David Burnett, Alan Chin, Danny Wilcox Frazier, Stanley Greene, Brenda Ann Kenneally, Andrew Lichtenstein, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Carlos Javier Ortiz, Lucian Perkins (Vice President) and Anthony Suau (President). Detailed information about FCDA, the photographers, the photojournalists and their projects, can be found on www.facingchange.org.