<p>Today’s photographers would, perhaps, give a strange look when you utter the words ‘iris flex’ and ‘haco flex’. But those were the cameras that preserved for posterity smiling faces in the ‘negatives’ by literally throwing light on them in the 60s.<br /><br />‘Iris flex’ and ‘haco flex’ were cameras used when the Deluxe Photo Studio was started in 1964 on Ashoka Road in the town by V Venkoba Rao. The cameras had then cost him Rs 1,500 each.<br /><br />Series of cameras<br /><br />Then came the Rs-2,000 Yashica D camera. This was followed by the Canon Q L17 camera that came at Rs 3,000. Rao’s was the first photo studio in the taluk. He had learnt film processing and printing the photographs by then.<br /><br />Rao recollects that it was Niranjan Singh, a bill collector in the Town Municipal Council, who taught him film processing. <br /><br />He started the studio with an investment of Rs 120 and a rent of Rs 16 a month for the studio premises on September 12, 1964. He transacted a business of hardly Rs five a day and charged Rs three for a set of three passport photos at that time. He also bought a field camera, spending Rs 5,000, for taking group photos. <br /><br />Memories<br /><br />The 74-year-old photographer recalls taking membership of the South India Photographers Association and visiting Chennai (then called Madras) for its elections and meetings.<br /><br />During the studio’s silver jubilee in 1989, Rao bought a video camera for Rs 75,000 for the first time in the taluk. <br /><br />Rao’s studio had to be closed after 43 years of service, as it was demolished for road widening. With his children now having their own studios, Rao is leading a retired life.<br /><br />He said there are now 45 studios in the taluk. In the age of digital photography, it is easy to take pictures and print them, he added. <br /><br />It was a fad then to get a black & white photo taken in the studio, frame it and display it in a vantage place in the house, says Rao with a sense of nostalgia.</p>
<p>Today’s photographers would, perhaps, give a strange look when you utter the words ‘iris flex’ and ‘haco flex’. But those were the cameras that preserved for posterity smiling faces in the ‘negatives’ by literally throwing light on them in the 60s.<br /><br />‘Iris flex’ and ‘haco flex’ were cameras used when the Deluxe Photo Studio was started in 1964 on Ashoka Road in the town by V Venkoba Rao. The cameras had then cost him Rs 1,500 each.<br /><br />Series of cameras<br /><br />Then came the Rs-2,000 Yashica D camera. This was followed by the Canon Q L17 camera that came at Rs 3,000. Rao’s was the first photo studio in the taluk. He had learnt film processing and printing the photographs by then.<br /><br />Rao recollects that it was Niranjan Singh, a bill collector in the Town Municipal Council, who taught him film processing. <br /><br />He started the studio with an investment of Rs 120 and a rent of Rs 16 a month for the studio premises on September 12, 1964. He transacted a business of hardly Rs five a day and charged Rs three for a set of three passport photos at that time. He also bought a field camera, spending Rs 5,000, for taking group photos. <br /><br />Memories<br /><br />The 74-year-old photographer recalls taking membership of the South India Photographers Association and visiting Chennai (then called Madras) for its elections and meetings.<br /><br />During the studio’s silver jubilee in 1989, Rao bought a video camera for Rs 75,000 for the first time in the taluk. <br /><br />Rao’s studio had to be closed after 43 years of service, as it was demolished for road widening. With his children now having their own studios, Rao is leading a retired life.<br /><br />He said there are now 45 studios in the taluk. In the age of digital photography, it is easy to take pictures and print them, he added. <br /><br />It was a fad then to get a black & white photo taken in the studio, frame it and display it in a vantage place in the house, says Rao with a sense of nostalgia.</p>
