Eurobrom 1 - Amsterdam 2004

Several participants from Europe and Australia did attend Hopperfest IV (October 2002, New Orleans). Some proposed to organize Hopperfests outside of the USA in order to encourage international participation. All were filled with enthusiasm and went with the proposal to have the next meeting in Amsterdam.

Very soon however, it became obvious that there wouldn't be more Americans in Amsterdam as there were non-Americans attending US-based events. The conclusion was obvious: to be successful, such gatherings should primarily focus on local artists.
Planning on the Amsterdam event continued, considering that this was a unique opportunity to establish close links amongst individual bromoilists as well as existing alternative photography organizations throughout Europe, to encourage the creation of such organizations in countries where none was existing, and finally to develop a real and strong bromoil community in Europe -- the craddle of the oil and bromoil processes...

To further enhance this European identity, it was decided to give the European events their own "Eurobrom" name, and to open it to all participants having a genuine interest in Bromoil, whether they are members of the ISOB group or not.

The meeting was a success: 21 participants attended, coming from 9 different countries and including official representatives of the German, French and German associations.

The programme included a mix of technical presentations and demos illustrating soft inking techniques and bromoil transfers, portfolio presentations, vintage prints from belgian bromoilist Gustave Bilande (with prints provided by the " Musée de la Photographie de Charleroi" as well as from the austrian photographer Franz Rontag. Franz Rontag (1897 - 1980) was an amateur photographer who produced coloured Bromoil transfers in the 1930's.

Left, you can see one of the prints made during René Smets' demonstration, illustrated by the picture above.
Of course, the participants did have lots of opportunities to introduce themselves, and to have individual contacts with their colleagues at lunches, and during the evening dinner organized in a typical restaurant at the junction of two of Amsterdam’s most beautiful canals.

Finally, in addition to all the bromoils on display, the participants had the opportunity to admire a series of self-built cameras, a transfer press as well as René's hilarious cartoons collection.

At the end of the weekend, the participants were unanimous to express their satisfaction, and the hope that this kind of event would be organized again.

Torsten Grüne, president of the German association Gesellschaft für photographische Edeldruckverfahren e.V. proposed to organize the next meeting in Germany.