Through the vintage-y lens
Can a camera have its own personality? The answer would be a resounding yes, once you’d peek into Matunga resident and photographer Vrutika Doshi’s vintage camera collection
The lure of the bygone era is something that captivates all creative souls—look closely and you’d find a makeup artist collecting vintage makeup items, a music lover collecting vinyl records and so on. But little did we know that a young Munbai-based photographer is a fan of vintage cameras. Meet Matunga resident Vrutika Doshi, who for her young age, has collected quite an impressive array of priceless treasures. We meet up with her to see her collection of 13 vintage cameras, a vintage lens and flash unit, and chat all about it.
How did it all begin?It is apparent that Doshi, a professional photographer, is passionate about the art. Having graduated in 2008 from Rachana Sansad, a leading art school in Mumbai, she started collecting vintage cameras since four years ago. So, it isn’t really surprising when she tells us ecstatically that her husband had proposed to her with a ring hidden strategically in a 1950s Flexora vintage camera. Talk about winning a girl’s heart through her passion!Over the years, Doshi picked up a few vintage cameras on her travels abroad to US, Prague and Barcelona, while a few were gifted to her by a close friend as well as her father-in-law. The oldest camera in her collection dates back to 1950 (Flexora) followed closely by the Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera, dating back to 1960.
Every camera has a personalityUnlike the straightforward digital fare served these days, every camera in Doshi’s collection has a unique characteristic to it. She explains, “The Konstruktor comes in parts, which can then be assembled into one piece. The Petzval Lens, which is a reinvention of the legendary Petzval lens, first conceived in Vienna, Austria, in 1840, comes in a sleek, heavy gold case with a set of aperture plates for creating a swirly effect in photographs. The Diana Mini, while giving a retro effect, also allows you to move from the retro square format to the half-frame, which basically means clicking two pictures in one square shot.”
Endless possibilitiesAn artist, be it a photographer or a painter, never ceases to learn and Doshi is no exception. She tells us that she loves using these priceless cameras for her personal projects and for the pleasure of experimentation. “These days, getting the film is difficult and developing through the negatives is not as good as what it used to be,” rues Doshi. “But I’m looking forward to collecting more (vintage cameras) as time goes by,” she adds with a smile.