The Hindu : Kerala News : Passion for antiques

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 06, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala

Passion for antiques

Jithinam Radhakrishnan, employee of Dhanalakshmi Bank, spends about 20 per cent of his salary on collecting antiques. He has been doing this for 17 years.

His passion for antiques has made him the proud owner of many a fascinating object. In his collection is a camera with a flash fitted below its body. It arouses the curiosity of new-generation photographers, who are used to having the flash on top. "This was made in Singapore. It is about 60 years old," Radhakrishnan says. Also of interest to viewers is a Polaroid camera, which, he says, is also about 60 years old. It is bigger in size than the slick Polaroid cameras now available, but must have been an object of admiration when it first hit the market. Radhakrishnan has caught the attention of the public with an exhibition of his fascinating collection of cameras and other antiques in the Town Hall in Kozhikode. The event, inaugurated by Bharatiraja, filmmaker, will be on till Tuesday.

In his collection of cameras are a box camera and a folding-type camera, which are rarely seen in this digital age. Some of the cameras on view were made in Germany, the U.S. and Japan. A few of these are still in working condition, but Radhakrishnan says that he considers them mainly decorative pieces. He has in his collection nearly 300 cameras, but has exhibited only 120 of them.

Radhakrishnan is also an avid collector of many other articles of antique value. Among these are different types of lamps, stamps, coins, manuscripts on palmyra and clocks.

He had exhibited his collection in a number of places. But the Third Eye, as his show in Kozhikode has been named by the organisers Bankmen's Club, is the first in which the focus is on his collection of cameras.

R. Madhavan Nair

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