Opened as a rental darkroom and gallery by a photographer, Itaru Hirama, in Asakusa, Tokyo in June of 2009.

A variety of project exhibitions and workshops using this rental gallery and its darkroom are regularly held with the aim of leaving photographs using film for the next generation in this, the age of the digital camera, and providing such experiences for people with an interest in photography.

Place of exchange for photograph lovers used to be camera shops. There was a communication place for such photography afficionados in these shops. However, such camera shops are no longer salon-like places as the art of photography seeks increased speed and affordability. I wonder whether photography was an art to begin with tying the relation between the world and the people. Only it might be a function of photographs that are not now attached so much to digital cameras and digital prints. In downtown Asakusa, we can see such a former camera shop in PIPPO which is a new kind of photograph salon.