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Jan Lauschmann (1901 - 1991)
By profession a chemist, Jan Lauschmann considered photography a serious hobby. For many years he worked at the Neobrom photographic paper plant in Brno and subsequently lectured on photography and its chemistry at various universities. He started taking photographs in high school, then grew seriously interested while at university. Lauschmann served on the board of the most influential magazine for amateurs, Fotografický obzor (Photographic Horizons), in 1923—1934. In that capacity, he authored numerous articles and played an important, if cautious, role in publicizing international trends. After a period of intense activity in the later 1920s and 1930s, the demands of his profession caused Lauschmann to give up photography for a number of decades. Retrospective exhibitions in the 1970s nevertheless led him to renew his interest and to publish several reminiscences of his interwar career.