Photography enthusiasts are raising funds to put an extraordinary collection of more than 3,000 cameras on public display in the East Neuk village of St Monans.
The Jim Matthew Camera Trust was formed in March by a number of villagers and enthusiasts from elsewhere in the UK to continue the legacy of the late Mr Matthews and realise his ambition to create a museum to showcase his camera collection.
With the backing of Jim’s family, the trust has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £30,000, which would enable it to take ownership of the cameras, many of which are more than a century old, and the building they are housed in.
Jim died in 2017 without seeing his collection, which includes cameras from around the globe, put on public display.
His family want to see the collection kept together and have offered it to the charitable trust, which will be officially launched on Wednesday, to coincide with World Photography Day.
On Monday, Fife crime writer Val McDermid dropped by to see Jim’s cameras and said she was “swept back in time to my first Instamatic, and later, my trusty Olympus Trip”.
She added: “To have a collection as distinguished and extraordinary as this in a village as picturesque as St Monans seems appropriate.
“Anyone who’s ever handled a camera will find memories galore in here. And for the generation who barely know what a camera is, there is plenty to astonish them!”
Trust member Gordon Bell said: “For Jim Matthew, putting this collection together was a labour of love, and it would be tragic to allow it to be broken up. We have been offered the opportunity to take on the collection and the building that houses it, so we have set up the charitable trust.”
The collection features almost every Kodak Brownie model ever produced.
The Brownie was the first inexpensive camera to make photography accessible to ordinary working people. The first model sold for just one dollar in 1900.
Gordon said the treasure trove had very few rivals either in the UK or internationally.
“We have been offered the collection for a very reasonable price, but we will also need funds to make improvements to the building and for ongoing maintenance of the collection, so we are hoping people will be generous with donations to help us get up and running.”
Trust director Mike Child said: “Our aim is to make a world-leading private collection into a public one, open to the public on a regular basis, available as an educational resource, and to work with other public bodies to promote awareness of photography and its history.
“And what better place could there be for such a collection than St Monans? The village has historic links with early photography, and is so amazingly popular with modern photographers that it has taken on the title of the Photography Village, with a village website dedicated to photography.”
