The board of Photomobile have made the difficult decision to close the doors of Photomobile and to dispose of and re-distribute its assets – it was a hard decision to make but a combination of funding challenges, changing regulations for vehicles and trailers, and personal circumstances for the directors (being volunteers), led us here.
We would like to thank all the arts, community and educational institutions who have brought us in to work with them over the years and also thank the many volunteers who made all this possible.
This website will stay online, as a legacy, until early 2023 and the team behind Photomobile are all still involved in photography, of course, so if you’re looking for some guidance or delivery, we might be able to help, either directly or signposting you – so stay in touch.
The Company ceased trading in summer 2019, once a home had been found for its digital equipment (at the Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool), analogue darkroom kit and remaining funds (with the Obscura Darkroom, Blackburn).
Photomobile, the Travelling Photography Centre, is a unique mobile darkroom, digital suite, giant pinhole camera and camera obscura. It’s adaptable for complete beginners, or experts. It’s ideal for anyone with an interest in photography or digital imaging:
Photomobile is a not-for-profit organisation, so all money raised through running workshops is re-invested back into the company to maintain this unique resource.
To find out more about Photomobile and its features, explore the ‘About Photomobile’ menu to the right of this page.
A Little History
Probably the nearest thing to Photomobile’s birthday or perhaps we should say conception, as a result of the charity Aware Photographic Arts from Liverpool winding up, is the 3rd October 2006. On that evening the trustees voted to transfer ownership of the “Mobile Photogaphic Unit” to the Directors of Redeye, as a result of intervention from the Arts Council. From this Photomobile was born, a sister to Redeye, and it became a full-fledged Limited company in November 2007.
Credit is due to the various midwives involved in the birth – in particular the Aware trustees Roger Kirk-Smith and Phil Gorry, Will Carr from Arts Council England, Paul Herrmann from Redeye, Ben from The Phone Book Ltd and Chris Leyland, and of course we pay tribute to Colin Thomas, founder of Aware, who had the Unit built.
