70 years for camera store
Owen’s Camera House celebrates big milestone
THE year was 1949. Just as the first Carnival of Flowers was about to get under way, a photography studio opened its doors at the first time.
Owen Studio, which runs Owen Camera House, celebrated its 70th anniversary at the weekend.
“It’s pretty special that we’ve achieved 70 years in the photographic business,” current owner Syd Owen said.
“Our industry has changed so much in that time, from the early days of processing black and white film, through to colour stages in the ‘80s, now heading into digital in the late ‘90s and early 2000s.”
Mr Owen said it was “pretty iconic” both the studio and carnival were celebrating its 70th birthdays on the same year.
“My dad was involved with carnival right from the start,” he said.
“He was taking photos for it in the ‘50s and was president in the ‘60s for a couple years.
“He volunteered his services to it for 40 plus years and donated a lot of hours of photography.” Based out of a store on Ruthven St where Bar Wunder now sits for years, the store and studio was the go-to place for Toowoomba’s photography community, and just those needing help with photography.
In 2017 the family-owned and run store took a giant leap and moved to a new, larger premises on the corner of Neil St, into a new visually iconic building, all while keeping that go-to feeling.
“It was a very big move,” Mr Owen said.
“It took many months to go through all the history that was there.
“The new store is a very visual store when you drive past. We have a bigger range now and also run photo courses out of the shop. We just have the shop area to be able to do that.”
Mr Owen said despite a change in photography technology over the past 70 years a lot of things remained the same.
“There’s not been a huge change in how images are processed, the art hasn’t changed, you still have to be creative,” he said. “I do see the storage of photos are a problem now, as people just keep photos on their phone or computer and don’t print them.”
Mr Owen said there had been a renaissance in recent years of photography as an art form.
“There’s been the resurgence back into buying SLR cameras and mirrorless cameras,” he said.
“People seem keen to do stargazing shots and landscapes. We also still sell quite a bit of film, as people might have found mum and dad’s old camera, or a bought second hand one and want to know how to use it.”
Mr Owen said the success of the store laid at the hands of the staff.
“Our staff are like family,” he said.