Biography

Discussion

Bram Loman was a persevering, energetic personality. He not only had a large number of ideas, but he also managed to realise them. In his endeavours, he achieved astonishing results. Once his ideas took form, he usually left their further development to others. Notable, for instance, are the many associations he helped to set up in the areas of theatre, music, and photography.

Loman’s activities in this last area occurred at a time when photography was undergoing major changes. As described by Loman himself in an annotation made in October 1947 and today preserved at the Leiden University Print Room: ‘Even though the dry plates in those days were still hardly [light-] sensitive, taking “instant images” or “instantanés” was indeed possible, despite the fact that the standard lenses then used could hardly have been described as luminous when compared to today. It was probably around 1889 that the so-called hand camera made its entry. The plate format of 9×12 cm was fairly standard. In that year I settled in Amsterdam as a photo equipment repairman, along with selling photography supplies. What one referred to as amateur photography developed very quickly in those years.’

As the son of a renowned professor of theology in Amsterdam—every bit as musical as his father, having received a education in music under mentors such as Willem Kes and Bernard Zweers—Loman had made his choice: photography it would be. Bram’s father followed through on his young son’s wish by sending him to study photography with Professor Hermann Vogel at the Technische Hogeschool (‘Technical College’) in Berlin. Vogel was a pioneer in the development of orthochromatic plates.

In the summer of 1889, groups of young, enthusiastic amateur photographers gathered regularly on the Vijgendam in Amsterdam to photograph directors of the various trading firms leaving the stock exchange. While taking photos of these people was an engaging enterprise, it was by no means an easy task: visitors to the stock exchange did everything they could to avoid being photographed. One solution to this problem was the ‘Stirn Concealed Camera’, a popular device at the time. Loman had built a camera resembling a small cigar box for this same purpose, but the lens’ reflection gave it away. He subsequently constructed a second much smaller camera for twelve 4×4 cm plates, which one could interchange using a leather photographic changing bag. Loman’s camera could be rolled up in a newspaper and covered up with a dull-black canvas cloth. It had a lens with a long focal length, so it could be concealed deep in the newspaper roll. The shutter was released by means of a rubber hose and a bulb. Loman had tremendous success with this camouflaged camera, which could be carried under one’s arm. Its popularity was destined to be short-lived, however, as the amount of light required was available only during the summer.

Nothing has been preserved of Loman’s amateur photography, with the exception of several photos in the family’s possession. Even prior to his death, all of Loman’s glass negatives were thrown away during a housing move. Loman’s passion for journalistic photos—he also briefly worked as a journalist—is certain to have partially motivated his choice of photographic subject matter. His friendship with Carl Mögle and Chr. Schuver may also possibly have influenced his photography. In any event, all three shared a preference for the platinotype: a new printing technique applied in the 1880s by British art photographers, including Peter Henry Emerson, but by 1888–’89 as well by practitioners of art photography in the Netherlands.

With the founding of the magazine Lux in 1889, Loman and Schuver had established an important platform for art photography in the Netherlands.

In 1889, Loman developed a reflex camera that basically bears the same characteristics as a camera obscura with a diagonally positioned mirror, as constructed by Johann Christoph Sturm in 1676. In Loman’s construction, the mirror made it possible to mount the ground glass screen on the top of the camera. This made it easier for the photographer to assess the image in its upright position, adjusting it directly on the ground glass screen without having to use a tripod.

Loman had further elaborated on inventions made by Thomas Sutton and S.D. McKellen. In 1861, Sutton had acquired a patent on a reflex camera in Great Britain, using a mirror that could be retracted with a handle. McKellen had patented his invention in 1888, specifically, an automatically retracting mirror connected to a roller-blind shutter. Both types of reflex cameras were probably never put into production.

The camera designed by Loman, according to the text of the German patent for snapshot and time exposure shots, included a new type of shutter designed by Ottomar Anschütz in 1888. The light-sensitised plate is protected from rays of light by a roller blind located directly in front of it, as opposed to being placed in the vicinity of the objective. Characteristic of Loman’s invention is a mirror raised by pneumatic pressure: it is this movement that opens the roller-blind shutter. With time exposure shots, the mirror stays retracted above for as long as the exposure requires. The reflex camera’s user was still able to see the image on the ground glass screen until just a fraction of a second prior to taking the shot. The camera was then ready to take a photograph, because the cartridge slider could safely be opened through the use of the new shutter. Loman’s reflex camera stands as a milestone in the evolutionary history of the photo camera because of its retracting mirror and the application of the new shutter.

In 1889, Bram Loman founded the company Loman & Co. together with Chr.J. Schuver, a medical student and journalist. Loman knew Schuver through his membership in the AFV (Amateur Fotografen Vereniging, ‘Amateur Photographers Association’), where the two men held projection evenings together, referred to as ‘lantern plate soirées’. The new company quickly gained international notoriety, with the help of German and British patents on its reflex camera. In Britain, Loman was represented by the company ‘Mawson and Swan’; in Germany, by Dr. Adolf Hesekiel; in Austria, by W. Wachtl and A. Moll. In 1890, Hesekiel wrote a favourable article on the reflex camera, published in Dr. Eder’s Jahrbuch fiir Photographie und Reproductionstechnik (‘Annual for Photography and Roproduction Technique’). Business was apparently going quite well for Loman’s company, as a number of new employees were hired to work for the firm within a fairly short period of time. Notwithstanding, Loman left the company in 1893, with L.J.R. Holst succeeding him as a partner. Hereafter, the name of the company was first changed to ‘Holst & Zimmerman’, but shortly thereafter to the ‘Reflex-Compagnie’ (‘Reflex Manufacturing Company’).

While the reflex camera was a quality product sold in Britain, Germany, and Austria, Loman’s invention ultimately had too small a customer base to support a booming camera manufacturing industry in the Netherlands. By as early as 1898, the Reflex-Compagnie was shut down. This may very well have been in part attributable to the inconstancy of the inventor himself. The business’ failure can probably be ascribed to the lack of protection concerning industrial property in the Netherlands. The invention of the camera that went down in history as the ‘Dutch Reflex’ was sufficiently protected in Britain and Germany, whereas in the Netherlands, it was possible for anyone to make copies without restriction or fear of penalty. Finally, the price that had to be paid for this quality-made camera was by no means insubstantial. As such, there was no way to compete with other mass-produced cameras being brought out on the market. Consequently, Holst ended up shutting down the company. He left for Germany taking the patents with him, thus placing them in German hands. Holst, himself quite skilled at his profession, subsequently acquired various patents in Germany on improvements made to the Loman Reflex camera. The last remnants of the Reflex-Compagnie were transferred to Schaap and Brandsma, who continued with the production of the reflex camera in the Netherlands.

After 1896, Loman devoted his energy almost exclusively to music. He gave lessons and concerts, found time to compose, wrote an opera, and also delved into music theory. In 1933, Loman published an academic article, entitled ‘Het Muzikaal Wezen der chromatische Verschuiving’ (‘The Musical Essence of Chromatic Shifting’). He was also a contributor to the ‘Weekblad voor Muziek’ (‘Music Weekly’). In addition, Loman found the time to fulfil various board functions: general secretary of the ‘Maatschappij tot bevordering der Toonkunst’ (‘Society for the Promotion of Tonal Art’), the director of the publishing company ‘Caecilia’, and the director of BUMA (Vereniging Het Bureau Muziekauteursrecht, ‘Bureau Music Authorship Rights Association’).

Decisively peculiar was Loman’s experiment with the ‘Irenaphoon’ (‘Irenaphone’), a music-making machine that could be heard over a distance of several kilometers. On the roof of a building under construction, Loman placed a number of modified factory sirens, to which an air pressure pump was connected via a clavier. By controlling the factory sirens in this manner, it was possible to produce music, which—according to eye- and ear-witness accounts—could be heard at a distance of up to four kilometres. In late March 1929, the newspapers were filled with accounts of this musical wonder. To promote his invention, Loman approached Luftschiffbau Zeppelin (‘Airship Builder Zeppelin’) in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and Henry Ford. Commercially, however, it proved to be a failure. No more experiments were carried out, much to the relief of residents living on the Beethovenstraat in Amsterdam, where the installation had been set up.

In 1945, Loman made one more appearance in a completely different area: under the pseudonym T(heo) Ramphilos he presented a brochure with his ‘Toekomstplannen voor de Amsterdamsche Tram’ (‘Future Plans for the Amsterdam Tram’), a system designed to create a more comprehensive transportation network using fewer tramlines.

The single-lens reflex camera was not an invention, but rather a device developed in stages. Bram Loman can be credited with understanding the benefit of Ottomar Anschütz’s curtain shutter (after numerous improvements later referred to as the ‘split shutter’), as well as being the first to apply the curtain shutter in a reflex camera and attaching it to the retractable mirror. He was also the first to produce a single-lens reflex camera with the curtain shutter located in its proper place: directly in front of the light-sensitised plate. The Dutch Reflex camera is the direct precursor of the currently popular 35 mm mirror reflex. Holst and Brandsma hold the honour of having perfected Loman’s invention. Finally, it was Johan Steenbergen who gave the single-lens reflex its compact format by constructing the Exakta camera.

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