MoU for Gurgaon’s first camera museum to be signed

“Besides photography, the museum is a wonderful achievement for the city and residents can get to see a collection of the evolution of photography on a large scale.”

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and photographer Aditya Arya will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Tuesday for constructing the city’s first camera museum.

HT File

The project was announced in April 2016 but work is yet to commence on the same owing to delay in sanctioning of funds.

“Besides photography, the museum is a wonderful achievement for the city and residents can get to see a collection of the evolution of photography on a large scale,” Arya said.

The project was widely expected to be announced during the Haryana swarna jayanti celebrations on November 1 by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, but owing to his “tight schedule” it was omitted.

A site at Chakkarpur village has already been shortlisted for ‘The Museo Camera – Centre of Photography’.

A defunct community center spread over 18,000 square feet, is being renovated to create museum which will have space for 100 visitors at a time and have rooms dedicated for two galleries, a dark room and a workshop area.

The project construction cost is expected to exceed over Rs 7 crore.

Arya has a rare collection of cameras and vintage photos originating from the 19th century.

Studio, Field and Portable cameras (manufactured between 1880-1990) of renowned brands such as Kodak, Leica, Ansco, Zeiss, Graflex and Thornton Pickard will be showcased at the museum while photographs of historic moments chronicling India’s freedom movement, NAM, Sino-Indian war and Muslim League meetings will also be depicted.

Arya has stored this collection of over thousand cameras and photographs in the basement of his DLF Phase 3 apartment.