We run sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays for members of the public to come and dev film and hand print from 6-9pm.

Places must be booked beforehand (please don’t just turn up – we aren’t in/open every week).

Would you like to hire the space? Drop us an email at obscuradarkroom@gmail.com!

A History of the Darkroom…

Obscura Darkroom was started in 2015 by a group of local artists including Oli Blight and (well-known-around-these-parts photographer) Derren Lee Poole who were interested in analogue photography.

Oli and Derren.

Over the next few years people came and left and Obscura became a hive of creativity, soon moving into the back of St John’s church where The Bureau Centre for the Arts was based.

After a well-received group exhibition with a new team of people at the helm, three weeks later on the 3rd of April 2019, a fire hit destroying St Johns leaving devastation in it’s wake.

We were lucky that we (as The Darkroom) didn’t lose much in the fire due to where our space was situated in the building. A little bit of smoke and water damage but other than that, our things were relatively untouched.

The day after the fire after we found out we could access what was left of The Darkroom and collect what was salvageable.

In the summer of 2019 we moved to our next and current (for now until the upcoming move) home.

Orrin, Oli, Connor and Scott in the space in the old ‘Daniels’ (Thwaites) building. June 2019

Until the move we’re open for people to book on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6-9pm (emailing and booking is essential).

Get in touch if you’d like to come and visit us!