Saudi collector turns family home into photography museum

 Camera hobbyist Majid Shakhas Alghamdi enthusiastically showed visitors around his museum housing hundreds of vintage cameras in his family home in Khobar, Saudi Arabia.

His collection, of more than 2,300 pieces, spans from the earliest concepts of photography to modern drone and spy cameras, Alghamdi explained.

It grew from a passion sparked by a video camera gifted to his father when he was a young boy.

"It was a video camera gifted to my father. I used to love it a lot and I used to use it a lot," he said. "Maybe this sparked my passion, making me go into this field and focus on it.”

Alghamdi said he collected cameras from inside and outside Saudi Arabia, including at international auctions.

"The museum certainly helps people, especially photographers, to understand the stages of development of photography," he added.

The Camera Museum houses still and video cameras; and has a section dedicated to the first videos taken, a compilation of 12 photographs put together to make the first moving images.

"I saw some of the cameras I was using since like 1985... They bought all cameras from all around the world. They collected things that (are) not easy to find and see," Saudi photographer Khalid Al Sabar said.

The museum also has an interactive print photo developing station to replicate the process of print photography development, in addition to showcasing rare cameras used by celebrities including Michael Jackson and King Salman of Saudi Arabia.

Production: Hamad Mohammed Khan, Reim Nahaboo/Reuters