Every once in a while we are
surprised by some unexpected news regarding Leica and its history. Most Leica aficionados are familiar with
Oscar Barnack. After all, he is the
father of the Leica and 35mm photography as we know it. Few, however, are aware that there are two other Barnacks with a connection to the Leica, Oskar Barnack’s children Conrad
and Hana.
LEICA Barnack Berek Blog
reader Chris Dorley-Brown from London, UK, sent me the following email:
Dear Heinz,
I have been looking at the Blog and wondered if you
would be interested in this picture taken by my father in 1947, the man on the
left is Conrad Barnack, son of Oskar.
My dad met Conrad as a British Army POW in WW2. Conrad
was a prison orderly and taught my dad to speak German. They remained friends
and after the war got together frequently. He gave dad a Leica and he shot one
roll of Kodachrome but preferred his Rolleiflex so he gave it back to Conrad! I still have that roll of Kodachrome
which is in great condition after nearly 70 years. I
am a photographer myself and always feel a connection with this part of the
medium’s history, which I thought I would share with you.
best wishes
Chris Dorley-Brown
London
Conrad Barnack (left) with friends
That made me think of the
fact that I had never seen a picture of Conrad Barnack, and I decided to look a
bit further into this. An internet
search revealed a few more things. Oscar
Barnack had two children, Johanna, born in 1906, and Conrad, born in 1908. Searching further I found one more
photograph, published by liveauctioneers
(www.liveauctioneers.com). It shows Conrad Barnack together with his
sister Johanna. They commented the
following about this picture:
Conrad and Johanna Barnack
Photo Used with permission of liveauctioneers
Barnack was particularly fond of Hanna’s blond locks;
many photographs show her alone, several together with Conrad. There are only a
few images of Conrad alone. A comparison with later pictures of the two
indicates that these were taken in the summer of 1914. Conrad had started going
to school, which is when boys began to wear sailor shirts. The gaze of the shy
child is already mixed by the saucy expression of a future rascal. The children
knew to keep still when their father was taking a photograph – this was true of
the Ur-Leica too, as the film was not very sensitive. This is apparent from the
shadows, which are not very differentiated. This is a very early image taken with
an Ur-Leica.
Unfortunately their site does
not show any other pictures of Barnack’s children at all, and neither do any
other. But through the efforts of Chris
Dorley-Brown and liveauctioneers (www.liveauctioneers.com) who gave us permission to use
these pictures of Conrad and Johanna, we are able to learn a little bit more about
his descendants.
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Thank you for posting these. I have never seen any pictures of Conrad Barnack at all. These must be quite rare.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone cares to know the location see here:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisdb1/16445893434/