Analogue In A Digital World

Sumanta Chandra has, over the years, built an extensive collection of analogue, mechanical cameras.

- Pablo Chaterji

AS TENDS TO HAPPEN with hobbies (and, indeed, obsessions), Sumanta Chandra’s love for photography began early, when he was gifted a Leica IIIF camera by a senior at school. “It was a rudimentary camera, but there was something very appealing about the quality of engineering and construction. I started using it to shoot at random, just for the sake of using it. Fortunately, I had access to the school’s darkroom and, most importantly, very generous and talented mentors. There was no looking back.”

An engineer by education, Chandra has worked for over 20 years in the research and development domain at various companies, including Siemens, Sony, SCM Micro and Prime Focus Technologies - and his fascination with all things photographic has remained a constant throughout his life. “As much as I liked the Leica IIIF initially, the desire to own and use an SLR was overwhelming. The two photographers I looked up to were using the Nikon F and Olympus OM system respectively. After multiple years of saving my pocket money, I could finally afford a beaten-up Olympus OM1n, with a standard Zuiko lens. Then, after many more years, after I got my degree and my first paycheque, I bought a new Nikon F3 in 1994. Having owned the primitive Leica, the beaten up Olympus and the new Nikon F3 HP, I didn't find myself liking one over the other. Each had its own strengths and weaknesses. In other words, all three cameras had found their place, making none of them redundant,” he explains.