A Visit to the Leica Archives During the LSI Wetzlar 2023 Conference
During the Leica Society International Conference in Wetzlar last week an international group of experts, organised by William Fagan, Executive Vice President, and Bill Rosauer, Editor of LSI Viewfinder magazine, in conjunction with Tim Pullmann, Leitz Park, visited the Leica Archive to study the work of Oskar Barnack and the earliest pre-Leica and Leica cameras. They were joined by Ulf Richter, the author of 'Oskar Barnack - From the Idea to the Leica', which is available from LSI in a translation by Rolf Fricke. James Lager, the renowned author on Leica history, was also with the group to advise on any findings.
Photo 1 - Group photo from left to right:
Bill Rosauer US, David Stephens GB, William Fagan Ireland, Ed Schwartzreich US, Alan Stokes GB, Richard Clarke GB, Lex Bosman Netherlands, James Lager US, Doug Drumheller US, Tim Pullmann Germany - Leitz Park, Roland Zwiers Netherlands.
Photo 2 - From left Ulf Richter and his wife (name unavailable) Germany and Ed Schwartzreich US.
Photo 3 - The group gets ready to enter the Archive.
Photo 4 - M875 from around 1912 which was studied by the group. It seems to have been a tester for film being used in Barnack's 35mm cine camera, but it may have given some inspiration for the eventual shape of the Leica. Discussions about how it was actually used are ongoing.
The group will be following up on further research possibilities involving LSI and the Leica Archive.
