Get, set and click: Nation's first and Asia's largest camera museum now opens in Gurugram

Gurugram: In the age of smartphone photography, Instagram and selfies, there will now be a place that will takes you back to the glorious past and the richness of photography. Conceptualised two and half years ago, nation's first camera museum is now functional in Gurugram.

The museum that has some of the most vintage cameras and photographs has been designed by ace photographer Aditya Arya.

The Museo Camera - Centre of Photography' is a collaboration between Aditya Arya and the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG). Not surprisingly, Arya found space at home too small for his growing collection of cameras and photographic paraphernalia.

Arya presently has between 600 and 700 models of cameras, both bought and donated, and of all shapes, sizes and vintages. The museum is constructed at a cost of Rs 28 crore. The main attraction of the museum will be K-20, from which atom bomb dropping on Hiroshima-Nagasaki during the Second World War was captured.

The museum will also detail, chronologically, how photography developed, from the time of the pinhole and the camera obscura, through to daguerreotypes and dry plates, and on to Kodak (and the birth of film), the Polaroid and digicam.

Museo Camera's 2,500-strong collection boasts some of the rare lenses.

The collection starts with a model of Camera Obscura world's first camera — to the modern-day Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras. On one side, there's a camera weighing up to 500 kg, on the other, mini spy cams from Eastman Kodak, Leica, Ansco, Zeiss, Graflex and Thornton Picard. The rare print of a devadasi procured by Arya from a collector couple in France also stands out.

"I always say we are the single-largest centre for photographic art in this part of the world. In the whole of South East Asia, there is no other place as big as this dedicated to photography alone. There are big museums in the world, but a place with art galleries, history of photography, dark rooms and studio space does not exist," said Aditya Arya, the photographer who is behind the project.

One needs a ticket only to enter the museum, priced at Rs 200 per visitor. The rest of the facility is open to all.

Around four per cent of the annual revenue generated will be given to MCG.

The maintenance cost will be borne by Arya, who says he will require at least Rs 15 lakh a month.

"It is really going to be a treat for us to have a look at the gems of photography that will be exhibited in the museum once it opens. Technologically we have made huge strides in photography and Instagram may have taken over. However old will always remain gold," said a city resident.