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Coming soon: A one-of-its-kind camera museum in Gurgaon
The Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon and photographer Aditya Arya are in the process of opening a camera museum in the Millennium City, as your one stop destination that will take you through the history of cameras. Named the ‘The Museo Camera – Centre of Photography’, this museum will showcase around 700 -800 cameras, all of which have been hand picked by the photographer.
Devoted to the history of cameras, Gurgaon will soon have ‘The Museo Camera – Centre of Photography’, a museum just dedicated to cameras. There will be more than 700 cameras collected by photographer Aditya Arya over a period of 40 years, on display. In addition, there will be a photography exhibition at the museum to showcase the works of other photographers.
Vivek Kalia, Joint Commissioner of Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) says, “The museum will showcase cameras picked by Aditya Arya. We will also conduct photography classes, weekly exhibitions and competitions to promote art among youth.” He adds, “The museum will also provide details of the development of photography, from the pinhole and the camera obscura, to daguerreotypes and dry plates.”
The museum is under construction at Chakkarpur Village, Gurgaon and is expected to open in November. Arya also runs a room size museum in his home at DLF Phase-2 to spread knowledge about evolution of cameras, but he finds the place really small because of his growing collection.
His treasure includes cameras of various shapes and sizes made between 1880 to 1990 with original patent. While some cameras in the collection were bought by him, others were donated to his existing museum which Arya, runs from his home in Gurgaon.
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Among these fascinating pieces, the museum will also feature cameras which were mounted on the bomber aircraft during attacks on Hiroshima. His major sources for these are the rag pickers and vintage camera sellers across the world.
He says,“Being a history student and photography enthusiast, I have always believed in in-depth research. I travelled a lot to understand how the camera evolved. It’s a craft and has instruments involved, so reading about them is not enough. I wanted to touch them and see how they look like to understand their functioning.” He adds, “We believe this new museum will be world’s largest with two photography galleries, one dark room, and a workshop area.”
“My place is quite small, I get a lot of request from schools and colleges but only twelve to thirteen people could see the collection at one go. In the museum around 100 people will be able to see the collection at once. The whole idea is to establish a place where students can enjoy history,” says Arya adding “Over 70 per cent of the cameras on display are in working order or can be repaired.”
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