This veteran photographer’s camera collection is a real treasure!

Kusuma Chandrashekhar Rao has been preserving the film cameras of yesteryear such as antique wooden folding field view camera, a Japanese Mamiya C220-a twin lens reflector (TLR), Zeiss SLR film roll folding camera and others he worked with as he is fond of them.

Kothagudem: The town-based veteran photographer Kusuma Chandrashekhar Rao’s passion for photographic contraptions ended up in an impressive collection of film roll and digital cameras.

He has been preserving the film cameras of yesteryear such as antique wooden folding field view camera, a Japanese Mamiya C220-a twin lens reflector (TLR), Zeiss SLR film roll folding camera and others he worked with as he is fond of them. He also has a collection of video cameras. There are many compact cameras, roll film folding cameras as well as SLRs in his collection. Most of the film cameras are in semi-functional state and require minor mending to make them function. He has scores of cameras made by Kodak, Vivitar, Nikon, Yashica, Konica, Olympus and others.

Speaking to Telangana Today, Chandrashekar Rao said the cameras are like a treasure for him and that is why he is preserving them. He intends to donate his camera collection if any photography enthusiast is willing to display them in a museum. The 75-year-old photographer completed the three-year diploma in photography course in JNTU, Hyderabad in 1975 to realise his childhood dream of becoming a photographer. Later he worked in a polytechnic in the north as an instructor for some time.

Later he worked as a photographer at Sponge Iron India Limited at Paloncha from 1979 to 2000 during which he used to take pictures of sponge iron produced in the factory to check iron content in it by fitting special equipment to cameras. He spent his leisure time taking nature pictures and other happenings of day to day life. Chandrashekhar Rao said after retirement he wanted to share his knowledge with future generations and started free photography and videography training classes with the support from Singareni Seva Samstha of SCCL. He also trained students of Singareni Women’s College here.

He used to conduct training classes for students of Government Polytechnic in Kothagudem as part of a community polytechnic programme. The training classes continued for several years regularly until the outbreak of Covid-19. He hopes to revive training classes soon. In recognition of his services, Chandrashekhar Rao received an award from former Chief Minister of erstwhile AP, K Rosaiah in 2019 on the occasion of International Photography Day, besides many others awards.