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the house of Franz Hanfstaengl. In 1849, he was the fi rst
to announce “photography on paper” in Munich and
offered lessons in this method. In 1850, he opened the
fi rst exhibition of his genre photographs at the Munich
Kunstverein. He produced large numbers of view of
Munich’s streets, places, backroads, and old houses.
Alois Loecherer was best known for his series on the
construction and erection of Ludwig Schwanthaler’s
statue of the Bavaria which formed one of the fi rst series
in photographic journalism.
Loecherer was the pioneer of salt printing and pho-
tography on paper in the German speaking countries.
His print had comparatively large formats were overtly
intended to be exhibited. Due to his early death Alois
Loecherer was not able to nuture the needed impact
on the development of German photography as a form
of art.
Alois Loecherer was born on August 14, 1815, in
Munich. From 1837 to 1839, he studied chemistry
and pharmacy at Munich University under Franz von
Kobell. From 1840 to 1848, he worked as a pharmacist
in Munich. Married in 1849, had two daughters born in
1851 and 1852. In 1853 he settled in as a portraitist in his
own house in Munich. Died on Aug. 15, 1862, of a brain
attack. His studio was taken over by the photographers
Albert Kristfeld and Bernhard Froehlich.
Rolf Sachsse
LONDE, ALBERT (1858–1917)
French medical researcher, chronophotographer
Londe was born in 1858, the date and place of his birth
remain unknown however. Londe was one of the pio-
neers of medical photography and more particularly of
photography with x-rays. He was also the inventor of
a form of instantaneous photography: Chronophotog-
raphy, which is a Victorian application of science (the
study of movement), and art (photography). The word
is from the Greek chronos and photography, “pictures
of time.” Notable chronophotographers include Ead-
weard Muybridge, Etienne-Jules Marey and Ottomar
Anschütz. Chronophotography and Londe are both
affi liated with professor Charcot’s photography which
marked the beginning of medical photography’s history.
However, Londe’s photography was characterized by
chronophotography’s instantaneous and motion-analy-
ses. In 1879 Londe became a member of the Société
française de photographie (S.F.P.) in Paris.
In 1878 a laboratory for medical photography had
been set up at La Saltpêtrière hospital in Paris. In 1882
Londe began working there as the director of photo-
graphic service in the laboratory of the Hospice of the
Salpétrière, which had a partnership with the Clinic
for diseases of the nervous system run by professor
Charcot. Londe broached most issues of concern re-
garding photography. He ordered the construction of
a variable-speed, circular shutter, which was destined
to replace the existing guillotine and wing shutters that
proved inadequate for animated subjects or swiftly
moving objects. Research conducted by Muybridge
and Anschütz gave him the idea, that where speed is
concerned, camera should use several lenses. Londe
constructed a camera fi tted with nine lenses arranged
in a circle. A series of electronic magnets energized a
sequence regimented by a metronome device released
nine shutters in quick succession, taking nine pictures
on a glass plate. He used the camera to study the move-
ments of patients during epileptic fi ts. Londe’s improved
camera of 1891 used twelve lenses (in three rows of four)
and was used for medical studies of muscle movement
in subjects performing a variety of actions as diverse
as those of a tightrope walker and a blacksmith. The
sequence of twelve pictures could be made in anything
from 1/10th of a second to several seconds. The design
of Londe’s laboratory at La Saltpêtrière was in many
ways similar to Marey’s Station Physiologique, and
was similarly subsidized by the Parisian authorities.
Although the apparatus was used primarily for medi-
cal research, Londe noted that it was portable, and he
used it for other subjects—horses and other animals,
and waves, for example. General Sobert developed, in
conjunction with Londe, a chronophotographic device
to help in the study of ballistics. Londe’s pictures were
used as illustrations in several books, notably by Paul
Richer, widely read in medical and artistic circles.
During 1884, Londe lectured on photography and its
scientifi c applications.
In 1887, he worked with Tissandier, and the Société
d’Excursions des Amateurs Photographes. He was the
vice-president from 1887 to 1895, president from 1895
to 1900, and president for life from 1900 on. Conse-
quently, Londe had many photographic adventures
starting with the circus, bullfi ghts and with the theatres
of the streets. The excruciating exercises of collecting
images of new subjects preceded the photo-journalistic
iconography. Furthermore, these subjects belonged to
a universe located between reality and imaginary, and
because of this limbo were curiously connected to the
patients that Londe photographed in Salpetrière. These
portraits reveal an attraction for the marginal beings of
the industrial time.
In 1888 Londe did experiments with shots of a clown
doing a perilous jump at the Hippodrome and are likely
considered a study of instantaneous photography.
In 1890 he was elected a board member of the So-
ciété française de photographie, and by 1892, had been
elected to the position of assistant general-secretary.
During that period he compiled numerous reports on
prices, inventions, and cameras.