One of the driving forces behind Photo Hub North is developing sustainable photography solutions, so we can continue our passion for photography while not damaging the earth.
Find out what we have achieved so far
and how you can get involved.
The Eco Darkroom
In 2022 we secured prestigious funding from Arts Council England to carry out initial research and development into creating the country's first Eco Darkroom. Since then we have continued to develop our learning and practice, and are currently working on implementing several environmentally friendly systems including:
Installed a rainwater collection system to provide the darkroom with recycled water
Working with a Permaculture Gardened to develop our current photography garden, where we grow plants and vegetation to use in the darkroom and workshops
Developing a unique greenhouse degradation system to break down waste chemistry.
Working towards creating a reliable and consistent plant-based developer that can be created on a mass scale.
You can follow our progress in this area through our Instagram page or by attending one of our talks or workshops. We are also looking for volunteers to help with the photo garden so please do get in touch if you are interested. In 2022 we secured prestigious funding from Arts Council England to carry out initial research and development into creating the country's first Eco Darkroom. Since then we have continued to develop our learning and practice, and are currently working on implementing several environmentally friendly systems including:
Installed a rainwater collection system to provide the darkroom with recycled water
Working with a Permaculture Gardened to develop our current photography garden, where we grow plants and vegetation to use in the darkroom and workshops
Developing a unique greenhouse degradation system to break down waste chemistry.
Working towards creating a reliable and consistent plant-based developer that can be created on a mass scale.
You can follow our progress in this area through our Instagram page or by attending one of our talks or workshops. We are also looking for volunteers to help with the photo garden so please do get in touch if you are interested.
Beer Based Developer
Here at Photo Hub North, we are super excited to tell you about our current collaboration with Brass Castle Brewery to produce a new sustainable plant-based developer.
Pubs and brewing across the UK contribute £23 billion to the UK economy. As a by-product of this production around 250 million tons of spent grain and 30,000 tons of waste hops are disposed of. With Brass Castle, we are looking to utilise some of this waste to create a reliable and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional chemical-based film and paper developers.
Initial testing has been carried out throughout 2023 to great success and we are now moving to phase two of the research and development.
If you would like to learn more about this process and our research, you can attend one of our online workshops or attend one of our talks.
If you are a university or research facility that would like to help with our project testing please get in touch.
WORKSHOPS / TALK & EVENTS
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Collaborating with Universities and Research Programmes
We are now in the second stage of research and developing into creating the first reliable plant-based sustainable photography developer. Our unique beer-based developer aims to use waste products from the brewing industry and we are keen to work with any university that could help expand our testing and understanding of the science behind our product.
If you feel you may be able to help, please get in touch.
Citizen Science Project
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Get Involved
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Citizen Science Project : Get Involved :
To help expand our research and carry out mass testing in the future we will be running a Citizen Science Project.
This will involve a large number of people across the country testing out our sustainable developer. We will provide the materials and instructions if you can provide us with your time.
If you would like to get involved please press the link below to join our database and we will contact you nearer he time.
JOIN THE CREATIVE EARTH NEtWORK
together we can make a difference
At the end of 2023 we launched the Creative Earth Network, in collaboration with Land Art Collective.
This network looks to bring together all different photographers and artists working or interested in the growing area of sustainable arts.
By uniting people we hope to share research and learning, while creating a worldwide network of like-minded artists who together aim to protect our planet. The network will also enable you to easily find people working on similar projects or in areas of interest with you and connect directly with them.
Submit your details to join our directory of artists all looking to develop and pursue sustainable creative methods.
Creative Earth Festival
We are currently working towards staging our inaugural one-day sustainable arts festival, ‘Creative Earth: Eco Photo & Arts Festival’.
This will be designed with the community, for the community, and have environmental sustainability at its heart. The idea for the festival was born from Photo Hub North’s passion for helping people respond to the current environmental crisis in a positive, creative way.
We are currently looking for potential funders, suppliers and volunteers for the festival, so if you think you would like to get involved please complete the form below and we will be in touch.