The orthodontist who built a museum of cameras in Chennai

Back successful 1997, a Chennai-based orthodontist held his archetypal twin-lens reflex camera astatine a flea marketplace successful the city, and that find acceptable disconnected a lifelong passion. All these decades later, it has grown into a postulation of astir 5,800 inactive photography cameras, earning him a Guinness World Record for the largest postulation of cameras and the astir distinctive assemblage of movie cameras. Each piece, from uncommon Polaroid models and container and folding cameras to pocket-sized miniatures, finds its spot successful his camera depository successful Kovalam. Behind this immense collection, A.V. Arun balances his hobby portion practising dentistry full-time since the 1990s.

“I person intelligibly kept my assemblage and passionateness distinct,” says Dr. Arun. “Pracising dentisty is simply essential. It helps maine tally my beingness and prolong it. However, what makes it worthy surviving is ever my passion.” Dr. Arun’s collector’s instinct was a portion of him adjacent earlier helium arrived astatine dentistry. It started with vessel caps erstwhile helium was successful school, past miniature perfume bottles, and determination on the way, it evolved into a camera museum.

Cameras from each implicit the world

Whenever his dentistry conferences instrumentality him to different parts of the world, the orthodontist finds himself astatine the section flea markets aft work. “Once, successful Australia, I picked up astir 40 cameras for a throwaway price,” helium says. “So, you volition find pieces successful the depository from each the crannies of the world.”

The precision and patience that dentisty demands seems to spill implicit seamlessly into his satellite of cameras too. When asked however helium manages to juggle betwixt both, helium says the reply is simple: “No one’s ever excessively busy.” “After session hours, I travel location to speechmaking astir cameras, cleaning them, tinkering with them -- sometimes adjacent until 1 a.m.”

For idiosyncratic surrounded by thousands of cameras, curiously, Dr. Arun doesn’t instrumentality excessively galore photos himself. “Not galore make movie these days,” helium says. “It’s excessively expensive. But I’m much of a collector than a photographer.”

Collector’s eye

When Dr. Arun archetypal started collecting movie cameras, determination was not overmuch competition, but that changed implicit time. “Once, idiosyncratic from Chandigargh called maine up saying helium had a wholly wooden, British-make camera,” helium recalls. “Since it was made that way, courier wasn’t ideal, and I took a bid each the mode determination to bring it backmost myself.” Well, that camera, dating backmost to the 1870s, is 1 of the oldest successful his collection.

“These days, collecting cameras is dilatory making a comeback among young radical too. And it is rather existent -- what is useless to 1 idiosyncratic could beryllium treasure to another. Only a existent collector tin spot that.”

The camera depository successful Kovalam opens lone connected Sundays, and lone by appointment, to invited chap camera aficionados. Alongside, helium besides visits colleges to springiness talks connected the past and mechanics of cameras, due to the fact that immoderate passions, arsenic it turns out, merit their ain aperture of time.