Against the frenzy of the old city market, the rosehued Hawa Mahal rises majestically into the sky. If you pass it by to the old town hall, you might find a man with a 100-watt smile half-hidden by a bottlebrush moustache, sitting in front of it. He is Tikam Chand, and keeping him company is his 175-year-old Carl Zeiss camera. In a way, Chand is as vintage as his camera. Despite his jetblack hair, crisp shirt and polished leather shoes, there is an old-world feel to him, as though he photoshopped himself into today from a distant, sepia-toned past.
“I fell in love with this camera, which first belonged to my grandfather Pahari Lal, the first time I saw it,” says Chand. His grandfather used to be the photographer of an erstwhile royal family of Rajasthan. The Carl Zeiss is the last surviving camera of its kind today, he says. The coming age is going to be digital, but this camera is special, he recalls his father telling him.
This story is from the August 27, 2023 edition of THE WEEK India.
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This story is from the August 27, 2023 edition of THE WEEK India.
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