[Leica] Tom Abrahamsson

[lowiemanuel at yahoo.ca (EPL)]

I got to know Tom quite well over many years, through the LHSA, the LUG, 
many telephone conversations and get-togethers, and via our mutual friend 
and fellow Canadian, Reinhold Mueller.

Tom and I shared a dedication to using vintage film Leica rangefinder gear 
for current photojournalism. We shared a fascination with custom 
modifications which improved the Wetzlar and Midland gear, and a frustration 
with the pace of change during the early Solms era.

I have no hesitation in saying that Tom was one of the pioneers in the 
rangefinder renaissance which burst onto the scene in the late 1980s and 
through the 1990s. Tom was a clever innovator and a bit of a gadfly to the 
status quo. It is due to his efforts and inspiration that companies like 
Cosina/Voigtlander, Zeiss Ikon, Nikon, Yasuhara, Konica and Epson took up 
the challenge of pushing ahead with innovations in the rangefinder tradition.

The folks at Leica Solms were well aware of Tom's projects. Some of his 
efforts helped kick-start the Germans out of their complacent doldrums. The 
Leica gear we enjoy today has some of Tom's cosmic karmic DNA in it.

Tom was an easy man to like. He was generous with his time and his 
knowledge. He loved a technical challenge and was appropriately pleased when 
he solved a problem and developed a product better than the factory 
original. 

I called him a couple of months back with a technical question about one of 
his brilliant Leica inventions and had no reply to the message I left. 
Knowing of his earlier health challenges, I figured he'd moved on from such 
mundane issues, so I dropped the pursuit. I am saddened to learn that he is 
gone.

He was a good guy, a Leica man of the highest class and a partisan of the 
LUG. He deserves every honour our community can bestow.

Emanuel Lowi
Montreal