A click-worthy, visual treat @ Museo Camera

A labour of love of Aditya Arya, the Museo Camera in Gurugram is the largest not-for-profit crowdfunded photography museum in South-East Asia and no wonder a big draw with photography aficionados and enthusiasts alike, writes Kavita Kanan Chandra

Chandelier of twin lens reflex cameras. PHOTO BY AUTHOR

Aditya Arya, director Museo Camera

In the midst of the snazzy high rises and chaotic traffic, the green environs of the Museo Camera at Gurugram comes as a pleasant respite. Whether you are a photography aficionado or enthusiast, it’s a great place to hang around. A tongue-in-cheek warning at the entrance: “Photography is strictly permitted,” set the tone of our visit. Inside, the twin-lens reflex cameras’ chandelier in the atrium draws attention. The spacious industrial interiors with aesthetic décor and lighting grace this contemporary museum plan.

It is the largest not-for-profit crowdfunded photography museum in South-East Asia, a labour of love of Aditya Arya, Director, Museo Camera. A photographer, historian and archivist, he has meticulously collected thousands of cameras and photography paraphernalia for four decades from across the world. You might even come across Aditya at the museum, a knowledgeable gentleman with an affable demeanour, ready to share his passion for photography with you.

From renting basements to store his collection to refurbishing an unused badminton court to make it a museum, his private collection could be enjoyed by the public. This endeavour was facilitated by the public-private partnership between the India Photo Archive Foundation and the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram.

The museum displays over 4,000 vintage cameras and paraphernalia from the 1850s onward, 700 original patents and advertisements, photography equipment, films, lenses, enlargers, light meters, first-ever magnesium flash and magic lantern image projector. The chronological history of artfully curated information on the pioneers and milestones in photography is displayed as wall text.

At the museum, the visual journey starts at the permanent collection gallery. You go back in time with the pinhole camera, Camera obscura, Camera lucida, wet plate cameras, large billowing cameras to thumbnail ones, you could see how photography evolved in 180 years. Some interesting trivia like the trademark name ‘Kodak’ has no meaning. George Eastman’s favourite letter was ‘K’, which he found to be strong and incisive.

You feel like a kid in the candy store browsing through the treasure trove of cameras from Kodak, Contessa 35, Yashica, Leica, Butcher, Ansco, Zeiss lenses, Graflex, Nikon, Pentax, Canon and many more. It’s interesting to find the K20s aerial camera used by the Americans during World War II and the one-dollar Brownie cameras that revolutionised photography.

Then there’s the big analogue Process Camera with the bellows, used to create printing plates for newspapers till the late 1980s. Aditya had found it with great difficulty in Jammu after many years of search. It was copied in India but had all the real parts and lenses imported from Germany. He had to hire a truck to transport it to Gurugram. “Each camera has a big story attached to it,” says Aditya. There’s also an interesting story of the image of the old Indian lady that adorns the façade of the museum. He found the 1880s vintage photograph with a German dealer in France, selling it for hundreds of euros. Aditya had to decline but he was asked to visit the next day. Maybe it was Aditya’s passion and credentials that made him change his mind. He sold it for under a hundred euros saying it would be nice if she goes back to India. “There was a time I used to look for them, today they look for me,” he said regarding cameras and related stuff. He gets calls from people having vintage cameras who gladly donate them to his collection. He says the idea is to celebrate photography. He reminisces the camera gifted to him by his father and the weekend visits to the Kabadiwalas near Jama Masjid in Delhi that ignited his passion for photography and collecting antique cameras. An alumnus of St Stephen’s College and a commercial photographer, he scouted for vintage cameras whenever he went abroad. It is a visual treat to admire anything and everything about photography. How photography became a tool to document newsworthy events like wars, take portraits, used for scientific purposes and found use for explorers to record new frontiers and discoveries.

The spaces
A permanent collection gallery, three exhibition galleries for photographers, a darkroom to practice analogue process, workshop & seminar room, studio, resource centre and library, a shop of memorabilia and the Café Fig.

Activities
Exhibitions, curated walks, workshops and events, digitising, archiving and archival printing services to preserve and conserve rare and fragile photographs. It provides select artistic residencies and school educational visits for groups of up to 200 students. Free workshops for children in selected villages near Gurugram using mobile phone cameras.

Fun corners to click & view photos
A studio set up, a phone booth, the kitschy autorickshaw and scooter, glittering masks and hats, quirky selfie kiosks, stereoscopes, the QR code on the wall to be used via Instagram to find numerous filters to create photos.

Museum hours
11 am-7 pm
Café Fig 8 am-10 pm
Entry fee
Rs 200 per person
Free entry for children
below 10 years.