Today is an exciting day! We reveal to you the three projects that have been allocated money from the second round of the UK Film Photography Community Fund.

So whether you are interested in developing 😉 your darkroom skills, photography mentorship or bringing life back to some old film cameras then there will be something here for you!

We'd also like to reiterate that, while we have the pleasure to moderate the Fund, the money comes directly from the community via the discretionary 'tip' option at Analogue Wonderland's checkout. So it is the community's cash that funds these projects and is bringing these ideas to life.

So a huge THANK YOU to everyone who tipped, contributed, shared, and supported the conception of the Fund. Here's to a growing and passionate UK film photography community! 🍻

- Paul and Mary

Work from some of Amy's students

Amy Marie Gladding works as an art and photography teacher at a high school and sixth form in Suffolk. The school has a fantastic (but old and tired) darkroom. The students there are currently taught how to shoot, develop and print with black and white film, and the school has just stared colour development lessons with a few bits of kit. However, Amy would like to take this a step further and teach her students and staff how to make colour prints! The school has a colour enlarger but Amy and her staff are yet to bring colour prints to their darkroom.

With help from the community fund, Amy will help to keep the joy of darkroom printing alive by teaching specialist techniques and processes to young people every year at her school, who will then hopefully continue with the subject in higher education or as a hobby. The Community Fund will be helping towards funding darkroom kit, papers, chemicals and hopefully a workshop for her staff. Amy is keen to expand her staff's knowledge and skills in the darkroom, and keep the interest and awareness around darkroom arts alive, in the hope that this will lead to more student uptake in the photography department.

Amy is a passionate photography teacher and practicing artist. We look forward to seeing how this enthusiasm for darkroom arts impacts her students and staff, and we can't wait to see the results! You can see more of her personal work, and the work of her students on instagram @my_faraway and @northgatephotography.

The stunning darkroom at the school Amy works at!

Elizabeth Freeman and Jacob Dunn have started their own brilliant youth mentoring project. The project is called Pick Your Own and is aimed at young people experiencing anxiety, low mood and low confidence. Their group hopes to offer an accessible and relaxed photography group, that is run by a young person who has lived experience if anxiety, neurodiversity and a keen interest in analogue photography. The group will support young people that are new to photography through peer mentoring, exposure to opportunities and resources that are not available to them. Pick Your Own gives young people access to an alternative creative opportunity to explore photography and wider art mediums if they want to, with the hope of inspiring young people to explore analogue photography and its community in a manner that is understanding to those experiencing anxiety. The group will offer individualised access and support and provide complete equality of opportunity for all levels of experience.

Jacob has been engaging with Pick Your Own since the start of 2020 and has accessed the mentoring and coaching and at times brought his camera along to outside walk & talk sessions. Having received support from Pick Your Own, and as his confidence has developed in film photography, Jacob would like to offer peer mentoring. He is keen to share his skills and interest in analogue photography providing the opportunity to integrate photography into the existing walk and talk mentoring and coaching support from Pick Your Own. Providing young people with an accessible art medium to build confidence and interest. It will provide the opportunity to create and share ideas and projects and explore further aspects of photography in alignment with individual levels of interest. Jacob is a keen analogue photographer and has been involved with community projects this year and is due to begin an Arts course at college in September.

This project will introduce analogue photography and it's community to young people who are unlikely to otherwise have experience of it and particularly provide a gentle, stress free approach to young people living with anxiety and low confidence and who would find it difficult to access a traditional course or club. It will have an anxiety friendly approach, offering individualised access and support. It will provide complete equality of opportunity for all levels of experience and will be led by Jacob, 18, who has shared lived experience with anxiety and neurodiversity and who aims to create a collaborative youth led approach.

The Community Fund aims to help Elizabeth and Jacob with this project by providing funding that will go towards cameras, film and chemical costs so that Jacob can carry out his peer mentoring project.

For more information about Pick Your Own, see their website www.pickyourownbrighton.com or instagram @pickyourown_brighton

A selection of Jacob's photography

Rob Halliburton's project aims to supply film cameras and photography equipment to schools, community groups and individuals in the north east of England, who would otherwise be unable to experience the joy of film photography. Having been invited to deliver talks on photography at local high schools in Tynedale, Northumberland, Rob found that none of the schools were able to provide valuable film photography experience to their students. This was due to a number of reasons from no budget for such equipment, or not having the developing kit or facilities for such ventures. Rob was influenced by the Film Photography project's school donation project, and decided to start up his own version.

To date Rob has provided 34 cameras and a range of other photography equipment to three highs schools and a charity that provides support to adults with learning difficulties. Some of these cameras have come from his own collection, most from donations from friends, family & the general public in this part of Northumberland. Rob estimates that he has saved £2000 worth of film related kit being from dusty hibernation, all of which is now being put to good use.

At the moment, Rob has 10 working EOS bodies that he bought from eBay, but he is finding it difficult to source EF lenses for them. The Community Fund helps to solve this problem! Through our funding, Rob will be able to bring these cameras back to life and give the gift of film photography to someone in his community! Rob hopes to put 10 cameras into the hands of new, young photographers, allowing them the chance to experience the thrills of film photography, that they otherwise would be unable to do.

Rob aims to expand the project out to donate to youth & community groups and groups or charities that provide assistance to young adults with learning or physical difficulties. To keep up with Rob's amazing work, have a look at his facebook page here.

As in Round One, we have also donated £500 from the Community Fund to Young Minds, and Child Poverty Action Group. This is in recognition of the catastrophic impact that the pandemic has had on the opportunities and health of the most vulnerable young people in our society - and in acknowledgement that film photography - while important to all of us - is ultimately a luxury versus the basic human needs that are sometimes missing.

It is a discretionary amount that will be reviewed each round of the Community Fund. If you have any questions about this aspect of the Fund then please contact Paul at help@analoguewonderland.co.uk

For full details on the UK Film Photography Community Fund then head to this page here: https://analoguewonderland.co.uk/pages/film-photography-community-fund

The third of the Fund is expected to open in January 2022. The amount available for projects in round three will depend upon the community tips donated at checkout between June 2021- December 2021. Thank you in advance for your continued community support.

Congratulations once more for the successful applicants and...

#BelieveInFilm!