About
Central Camera Company has been owned and operated by the same family since 1899. We’re Chicago’s oldest camera store and one of the oldest in America. Our customers are like family and many have been with us for decades. Our founder, Albert Flesch, came to Chicago alone at 13 years of age from his native Hungary. Albert started his work career in the camera department of Siegel, Cooper & Co., one of Chicago’s large downtown department stores in the 1880s. This initiation to photography inspired him to open Central Camera Company at 31 E. Adams St. in 1899. The year 1899 marked the 60th anniversary of Louis Daguerre’s invention of the Daguerreotype, the first publicly available photographic process. In 1888, George Eastman revolutionized the photography world with his easy-to-operate Kodak box cameras. Albert Flesch began offering the innovative service of commercial film developing and print processing at his store in 1900. Central Camera Company prospered, and in 1929 settled at 230 S. Wabash Avenue, our present location.
