Paul's Camera Shop Closes

The following article appeared in "Stuff" and obviously "The Press".

Who would have thought that a telephone would have led to the demise of a camera shop. 
Best wishes Paul Farrow.

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Paul's Camera Shop closes shutter 

TESS MCCLURE

Paul's camera shop shut the doors forever.

After 36 years in operation, the shutter is finally closing for Paul's Camera Shop.

Paul Farrow, with his trademark horn-rimmed glasses and shock of white hair, has been a constant in the Christchurch photography scene for nearly 40 years. 

His small Riccarton store survived two earthquakes and 56 robberies, as well as a myriad of industry re-inventions – the rise and fall of film, one-hour photo development and the heyday of the Polaroid.

Iain McGregor

CLOSING: Paul's Camera Shop owner, Paul Farrow, says he cannot compete with the snap-chat generation.

Farrow recalled walking into a Las Vegas photography convention in 1996 and seeing a crowd gathering around a single stall.

"I went up, and I asked them, 'What's all the fuss about? What's happening here?' And someone turned around and said, 'They've invented a camera that doesn't use film'.

"I knew right then it was the beginning of the end. It was like a meteor was on a path to hit earth... you knew it was only a matter of time."

It was the arrival of the phone camera that really spelled the end for Paul's Camera Shop. The business, Farrow said, could not survive the "snap-chat generation" – an era of  digital snapshots that self-destruct after just a few seconds.

"I can't even comprehend it," he said.

News of the closure has provoked an outpouring of support from former staff and customers on social media.

Many were now professional photographers who had bought their first cameras from Farrow, or past students of the fine arts school, who worked weekends at the store to fund hours in the darkroom.

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"What we tried to do is  take on young people and try to get them to lift the best out of themselves. You just look after them – bring everybody up to their potential. Just like children, you do all that you can, and then you send them out," he said.

Farrow pauses. He removes his glasses, folds them, places them on the desk and then puts them back on again. He wipes away tears from behind tortoiseshell rims and leans on the desk.

"It's been part of my identity, this shop – even my surname has disappeared. I became just 'Paul from Paul's Camera Shop' for a long time."

The store closes on March 22

 - The Press