TradeNames: Bermingham Cameras really puts personal service in the picture, writes Rose Doyle.

When it opened in 1954, Bermingham Cameras on Burgh Quay announced to a mid-20th century city that the shop could be found "nine doors from O'Connell Bridge". It's still at the same Burgh Quay location, still selling cameras, but everything else around and about has changed, dramatically if not drastically.

Few if any of the original nine doors are still what they were. One time neighbours like the Irish Press, Corn Exchange Buildings, pubs and even a 1960s discotheque have all gone the way of closure.

All of which has been a good news story for Bermingham Cameras: the tall offices and new glass buildings in the area have brought a new generation of customer for the new, digital, generation of camera. So has Tara Street Dart station and its huge, passing waves of commuters.

And then there's the fact that the Liffey doesn't stink any more. Brian Whelan, the owner/worker who is Bermingham Cameras these days, doesn't remember when it happened but, somewhere in the almost 40 years he's been at 9 Burgh Quay, the famous pong disappeared.

"We still operate the personal, hands-on touch," he says. "It's one-on-one, a good, personalised business. We look after customers plus give an after sales service. It's the way to do it, the way I like doing things."

Hard to imagine him doing things any other way. Callers and customers are a constant at 9 Burgh Quay, advice and friendly exchanges and chats about life and equipment what it's all about. Brian Whelan, it seems, is as much an institution on the quays as is his shop.

Nor surprising, when you look at a life trajectory which has seen him pretty much circling that bit of the city for 50 years now.

He was born and reared in Grattan Street, went to school in the CBS, Westland Row, sold newspapers on the station platforms in Westland Row (now Pearse) Station when he was 10 years old and, in 1968 when he was 13 and still at school, came to work for Bermingham Cameras during the holidays.

He works, hard and long, can be in the shop at 7.30am and leave 13 hours later most days. He knows the section of the quays between the Dart station and shop very well, rarely gets a chance to explore the rest. It's not a problem. Brian Whelan loves what he does and is formidably energetic.

"Business is like a game of chess," he says, "you have to be a couple of moves ahead all the time. People are always demanding, always looking for me, and I love it!"

Bermingham Cameras began life as Film Shows Ltd, around the corner at 1 Hawkins Street in 1954. The original owner was Michael Hogan, an ex-Garda interested in photography who moved within a few years to 9 Burgh Quay.

"As well as selling cameras the business then, and for a long time and even after I joined, was about doing film shows for people. There were no videos, of course, and few TVs, so film shows for children's parties were a big part of the business. You had them at Christmas fairs too, to entertain kids, and for business functions. There was no Xtra-Vision then, no videos or DVDs, so we hired out 8mm and 16mm films. A cartoon could be 20 minutes, a feature film two hours long."

Paddy Bermingham bought Film Shows Ltd in 1968 and put his name over the door. "I'd been looking for part-time work," Brian Whelan says, "and started here the same week that Paddy Bermingham bought the shop. I was a messenger boy and learned the trade from the bottom up; using cameras and dark-room equipment, cine projectors and cine cameras. I was totally green at the beginning, knew nothing, but I was fascinated and it was a challenge to learn everything."

The "business aspect" always fascinated but, when it came to taking pictures, he was always "a hobbyist.Paddy Bermingham was a very hard working man and probably one of the most knowledgeable in the business. When he took things over he created a great business."

They worked well together and by the late 1970s Brian Whelan was managing the shop for Paddy Bermingham.

Their customer base was large, and prestigious and still is; 9 Burgh Quay was and is where press and Garda photographers go for their equipment and back-up, where TCD, UCD, schools, camera clubs and Irish Rail all shop.

"From the beginning we looked after the professional photographers' trade," Brain says, "including freelance photographers nationwide who would cover such as weddings."

In the 1970s, as now, a Nikon was the camera to buy. "Every press and professional photographer had a 35mm Nikon," Brian says. "It's all changed - Nikon is still big, and Canon, but the market's changed radically and everything's digital these days. Apart from the 1980 change to auto-focus cameras the big, big changes have happened in the last five or six years and today equipment can change in months, even weeks.

"Prices of cameras have crashed dramatically in the last years. During the 1970s a good SLR Camera cost between £300-£500, or a couple of weeks' wages. You can buy something similar for a fraction of the price today; that's what technology has done."

Technology might have transformed the basics but camera customers are passionately the same, whatever their generation.

Paddy Bermingham retired in 1991 and Hayes Conyngham Robinson (HCR Chemists) bought and took over the business. Brian Whelan continued to run what continued to be Bermingham Cameras until 1997 when HCR decided to sell all of its chemist outlets to the UK chain, Boots.

Bermingham Cameras not being a chemist put it into a different category - and made it possible for Brian Whelan to purchase the lease.

"It took me a while to get the money," he admits, "but I did and took over. I was doing all the work anyway! Oxfam own the building, this is their HQ in southern Ireland, so they're my landlords."

The hard work and grafting have paid off and the business is going well. "Look at where I come from," Brian Whelan says, good humouredly, "my father was a labourer, we had no money when I was growing up. I work a 60-70 hour week and we're comfortable. I take about four short breaks a year, usually in the Algarve. I've got a long lease here and am grooming Brian Óg, my son, so's he can take over the major part of running the business.

"He started here when he came in part-time for the summer too and, as far as technical things go, he's far ahead of me. When someone comes in with older stuff I'm the hands-on person but, when it's today's and tomorrow's, well, Brian can talk and baffle everyone with his knowledge. I rely on him for that. My daughters, Sinead and Ciara and, soon, my youngest Niamh, all help in the holidays too. My wife Marian is the company secretary."

The Whelans live in Bayside, close to the part of the city which was home to Marian Whelan.

Burgh Quay may not be a "shopping precinct", Brian says, "which means we've to keep building the name and bringing people in. But our personalised way of doing things is our strength and it'll stay that way. People buy on the internet these days, which creates major problems when they get faulty goods, or don't get them at all. You just can't go back and talk to the person you bought from when it's the internet. The new office blocks, the revamped Dart station and the Luas a few hundred yards from our door has brought a huge passing trade. Things are looking good."