Derek Swindley was born in 1928 in Wolverhampton where he lived until he and his wife settled in Cornwall in 1959. Derek left school at fourteen to work as an apprentice electrician. He had a reputation from his teens for making and repairing mechanical objects. In the 1950s when his cousin Evelyn wanted a washing machine, which was a luxury item at that time, he built her one from a discarded hospital soiled-dressings container. He had numerous interests including stereo photography, astronomy and camera obscuras.

In 1984 Derek acquired a caravan and, in his back garden, converted it into a mobile camera obscura which he called ‘The Mobile Observatory’. The image was projected onto a 36 inch diameter screen in the blacked out caravan giving viewers an excellent image of the area outside the caravan. Derek took The Mobile Observatory to shows and rallies around Cornwall in 1984 and 1985, including ‘A Victorian Weekend’ staged in The Port Elliot Estate, St Germans in August 1984.

The Mobile Observatory was very well received, however it proved tricky to tow around Cornish roads and Derek was soon working on a more portable camera obscura. In 1985 he built a camera obscura in a tent; this could be transported by car and set up in about an hour. Derek took it local exhibitions where viewers were always very impressed at being able to see what was happening at the other end of the exhibition hall.

Derek’s Mobile Observatory was thought to be the only portable camera obscura in Britain when it was built in 1984. News of Derek’s camera obscura spread quickly amongst camera obscura enthusiasts; in 1985 the John Hammond (author  of The Camera Obscura, A Chronicle, 1981) contacted Derek for a photograph to use in a talk to the Royal Photographical Society. Derek visited many camera obscuras and museums where the staff were always delighted to see photographs and learn more about his mobile version. A note from the Edinburgh Outlook Tower & Camera Obscura, following a visit by Derek, remarked on the ingenuity of his Mobile Observatory and also remarked that some visitors said they had seen a camera obscura before at a garden festival which they thought must have been Derek’s.

Derek was very proud of his camera obscura and keen to share his knowledge to help others to build their own. He provided support, inspiration and donated lenses for at least two significant mobile camera obscura projects; in 2003/4 the Bedford Creative Arts Cameravan – ‘Window on the World’ (which later became the Focal Point Gallery Cameravan), and more recently Fotonow’s Camper Obscura.  Sadly Derek died in May 2012 however it is pleasing for his family to see that his imaginative engagement with building and demonstrating mobile camera obscuras continues through current projects.

The National Media Museum wants to open a gallery in London. In fact, depending on who you listen to, they have wanted to do this since they were first established in Bradford in 1983. What is more, apart from a few grumbles from rivals, everyone else wants them to achieve this as well. But, for some reason, it has taken a very long time to organise. Along the way the Museum has been restructured, changed its name and parted company with senior curators and its Director. A special Creative Director for the project was appointed and then later resigned. Funding was hard to come by and the project was scaled back. There have been countless delays. But now it looks like it is finally going to happen. Media Space should open in 2013.

I was given an introduction to what the Media Space would be about by its Curator Hannah Redler and its Press Officer Eleanor Macnair. Unfortunately, three weeks later the opening date and show had changed, but never mind, if it does launch in September it will be widely welcomed. To take the positives, there will be four large galleries, including climate controlled space for old photographs. This will contain a mixture of large blockbuster shows and regularly changing small shows. This will allow more exposure of the Media Museum's collection as well as a new curatorial approach to showing photographs. So there is a lot to look forward to.

On a less positive note, there are some reasons to be concerned that the project's problems will continue. Michael Wilson (described as the 'Evil Genius' behind Media Space) said that the V&A had been 'violently opposed' to the establishment of Media Space. It is hard to know what justification there could have been for this opposition and is not an encouraging measure of collaboration between our national photography collections. More than anything else what puzzles me about the venture is its remit and attitude to photography. The name Media Space and its role as a satellite of the National Media Museum would imply it will show new media, radio, television and film as well as photography. The launch I was invited to, (what PR people call a 'cultivation event') was exclusively attended by photography people and all the talk was about the 'photography community' but if you listen carefully to Hannah Redler she says Media Space will be 'photography biased, initially...'.

This appears, from the outside, to have been a contentious issue in the development of the project. Charlotte Cotton's version of Media Space was less of a conventional photography gallery than what is being presented now (after all, what could be more conventional than a Tony Ray-Jones show, even if you like his work). Cotton's version of Media Space also differed from the idea of a photography gallery promoted by Michael Wilson. But then Hannah Redler is a new media curator, not a photography specialist. What can it all mean? We'll just have to wait and see.

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Continuing my tour of the North I set off to Sunderland where the revamped university campus provides a home for the Northern Centre of Photography. From within a stand-alone stone-clad building, incongruous against its shiny counterparts, Carol McKay and Amanda Ritson oversee the activities of the North East Photography Network. Inside, the centre’s white corridors gleam and students hurry between darkrooms housing neat rows of enlargers. Despite the audible buzz of activity it’s clear how a photography degree can feel a little removed from the world outside.

This is where Carol enters to tell me about why the network was established and what she, an academic, gets from it. For an organisation framed by a large institution there is something reassuringly grass roots about the way the NEPN pursue their activity. Perhaps this is why Carol is so resistant to calling their forthcoming photo month a festival. That is, their desire rests in finding meaningful ways to nurture a photography culture in the North East and for this they're in it for the long term.   Laura Guy

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I take a two-carriage toy train from Manchester across the misty Pennines to Bradford. First a quick detour to visit the National Media Museum (unfortunately a few days too early for the opening of their Tom Wood retrospective) and then the short walk to Impressions Gallery to meet Director Anne McNeill. Impressions was founded four decades ago so doesn’t fit the remit for these interviews on the so-named New Wave of photography organisations. Instead we met to talk about Ways of Looking, the photography festival that Anne co-founded in 2009 with Nicola Stephenson of the Culture Company.

The first Ways of Looking took place in 2011 and Anne (with others) has since been working hard on securing a future for the festival. Like other festival aficionados interviewed for this series she stresses the importance for a festival to have a sense of place. A quick assessment of the infrastructure that Bradford already provides for photography and you can see why those involved with Ways of Looking think it’s a good site for the festival. The next one is due to take place in 2014 with the theme of ‘Beauty’. Anne commented that it’s not often something associated with Bradford. But as I made my way out via Impression’s latest exhibition of Yaakov Isreal’s large-scale images, the city was looking all right to me.       Laura Guy

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David Eaton is one of three who look after Photomobile, an itinerant 'Mobile Photographic Unit' currently parked in Cheshire on the forecourt of the factory of Harman Express (home to Ilford, Kentmere and Harman Photo products). The oldest surviving British photographic supplier made a nice backdrop to an interview about the so-called New Wave of photography.

The unit was originally purchased by the Liverpool based charity Aware Photographic Arts and passed to Redeye, the North West photography network, in 2006 when the charity wound up its activities. Subsequently the Photomobile was relaunched as an independent initiative, helped by a successful Arts Council Grant and the dedication of a the small team who keep it running to this day. We met on a snowy day in January. Despite the bad weather, and similarly bleak economic climate, David was keen to tell a positive story of Photomobile at a point when the organisation seems to be finding its identity.     Laura Guy

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Jonathan Blyth and Matt Pontin run Fotonow a community photography organisation based in Plymouth. Jesse Alexander went to speak to them and find out how Fotonow had come about and what they aimed to achieve with their projects. They describe a variety of influences: community photography; their experience of teaching; the example of other photography organisations like Photoworks and the specific circumstances of the South West of England, where there is not the same arts infrastructure as found elsewhere in the country.

Among their different projects is Camper Obscura, a converted Camper van that they bought on Ebay and now take to events to allow members of the public to experience a camera obscura and have their portrait taken. This was partly inspired by a meeting with Derek Swindley who had created his own camera obscura in a caravan in the 1970s. As Matt explains, they feel that their 'mission is being accomplished, because lots of people are having experiences of photography... you're embedding within them the importance of photography in visual culture and their lives.'

In other words they are evangelists. But evangelists of a particular kind. They use the language of anti-elitism but flavour it with the bureaucratic terminology of funders and the education sector, they look to emulate the work of other photography organisations that mainly show art photography but are genuinely excited by the chance encounters they have when taking their projects out to the general public. They have ventured into publishing and have an ambition to run a building in Plymouth. With the growing number of photography students (and graduates) in the area and no other photography organisations they would seem to have a ready made congregation awaiting them.

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Daniel Meadows had cited Sir Benjamin Stone as an inspiration and thought he might have worked on similar lines with a horse drawn photography caravan in the manner of Roger Fenton in the Crimea. Pete James, the curator of Photographs at Birmingham Central Library (that holds the Stone archive) replied on Twitter 'have photos of him in a horse and carriage. Think the caravan thing is a bit of a myth. Not required for dry plates.' and then later posted a picture of Benjamin Stone's horse and carriage: 'not a "caravan" till he puts The hood up?'

I had specified projects in the UK and Ireland but can't resist including these from the US in the 19th century because I think would should have at least one photo-boat. Part of a collection on Luminous Lint that Helen Trompeteler had spotted.

Going back even further, on Facebook Taco Hidde Bakker posted a link to this speculative research on Palaeolithic camera obscuras by Matt Gatton. They were mobile and in Ireland and the UK (possibly) a long time ago.

And also nicely resemble the work of the Pinhole Pedallers who cycled around the South West of England towing a tent obscura. Here they are pictured at Lacock Abbey, which I imagine is to contemporary mobile photography projects, what Stonehenge or Newgrange were to their Palaeolithic predecessors (that's just speculation on my part obviously).

Moving closer to the present Jason Scott Tilley had a wonderful photograph of his Grandfather with an army mobile darkroom in Burma in 1944. This, it turns out, is part of another project at Birmingham Central Library. Pete James writes 'massive and important exhibition / book be done here. Stunning material which crosses 3-4 generations.'

Daniel Meadows also made reference to the Cameravan, a custom van encrusted with cameras made by Harrod Blank. This is based in the US but visited the UK for Photo98.

I'm breaking my rules about what is included now, but Ángel from Photoireland mentioned the Cameratruck which claims to be the world's largest mobile camera.

And while we are talking about large cameras Peter Neill posted this picture of his Hunter Penrose process camera. When asked in what way it is 'mobile' he replies helpfully 'Well, it comes with a 15 foot railway track. It could go on a trailer'.

Tomorrow we can hear from someone who actually operates a mobile photography project.

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We have to start off with Roger Fenton who took this 'photographic van' to the Crimean war in 1855. Colin Harding has a blog post about Fenton in the Crimea, or better still here are his letters. Harding says the van 'took the form of a converted wine merchant’s wagon which, unfortunately, also proved itself to be a very tempting target for Turkish artillery.'

In a direct line from Fenton is Daniel Meadows, the inspiration for many subsequent photo vehicles. He drove his 'Free Photographic Omnibus' around England in 1973.

The following year saw the Photography Workshop Mobile Darkroom hit the road. A refitted ambulance it operated from 1974 to 1979. Terry Dennett has sent me pictures of it from outside and with the darkroom in use. Terry writes that the ambulance was operated by 'Me and Jo [Spence] and a few student helpers we picked up along the way, we toured adventure playgrounds, community projects and squats that existed at the time and often set up in various inner city streets – here today and gone today before the police could see us off. At weekends we used the ambulance /darkroom as a camper traveling out to the countryside to give ourselves a break.'

The ambulance was mostly a darkroom but the bus was also a gallery (pictures were displayed in its windows) which allows us to link it to the Caravan gallery.

The mobile darkroom has a contemporary counterpart in the Photomobile. Laura Guy has been to speak to David Eaton about the Photomobile and we will post that interview on Friday.

Then we return to the nineteenth century with the recent trend for employing antiquated photographic processes in the back of vans and caravans. Sebastian Edge has has created 'Darkvan' which 'is a traveling darkroom, capable of Ultra large format photography with the Wet Collodion process'. He has used this to take a picture of the band Radiohead and start a (non-mobile) darkroom in North London.

Meanwhile Sam Cornwell has made a film about taking a caravan to Lacock Abbey to make collodion prints (it's quite long, you'll get the gist of it from the last couple of minutes).

Which brings us on to the other main type of transportable photographic vehicle, the travelling camera obscura. Jesse Alexander has been to speak to Fotonow who said they were inspired by a man called Derek Swindley who converted a caravan into a camera obscura in the 1970s. Would be glad to find out any more information about Mr. Swindley's caravan, it looks like fun.

This was part of the inspiration for Fotonow's own 'Camper Obscura'. Hear Jesse's interview on Tuesday but here's a picture of the Camper Obscura in Plymouth in 2011, apparently on the site of the city's former fixed camera obscura of the 1800s.

Then there's Alasdair Gordon's Phenomera, a big pinhole camera built onto a trailer.

And I also discovered this film about Willett and Patterson's 'Amazing Portable Camera Obscura' which you can hire.

and this Camera Obscura in a Yurt owned by Canterbury Christ Church University. In fact there seem to be a number of Yurt Obscuras out there. But do they arrive and depart on a horse? Probably not.

And finally... Most of these projects are about inviting the public in to experience photography as some form of wonderment. Google Street View is no less a cause for wonder, but it doesn't care what you think.

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Paul Herrmann runs Redeye and Patrick Henry, until recently, was the Director of Open Eye Gallery, together they are organising Look 2013, the photography festival in Liverpool. Laura Guy asked them why we need another photography festival, and why in Liverpool? 'Festivals are things that grow in places' says Patrick and have to come from a demand from local photographers and audiences.

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The photographer John MacLean was the perfect companion to visit a bookshop that specialised in self-published books since he has produced a number himself (see the latest, reviewed in the current issue). I had not met him before, although we had published his work in Source previously. As we walked down the noisy Stoke Newington High Street to the shop he explained his experience of publishing. Refreshingly, and in contrast to the cynicism about the photobook market expressed when I visited Donlon Books, John said he rejected the 'contrived rarity' of limited edition books and that he wanted his books to remain available.

I thought that Tipitin was a lovely name for a bookshop that specialised in photobooks because it is it a nice homonym for 'tipped in' the book dealer's term for a book that has photographs stuck into its pages. When I asked Katja Chernova, who runs the shop, about the name she told me it, 'comes from an old song by The Andrews Sisters'. This meant nothing to me, which, as it turned out, was the point: 'I wanted something without any meaning (as I didn't know where this project would go) and something short'. This neatly sums up the whimsical nature of the shop where the stock is obscure yet well chosen. Katja was friendly (if a little shy) and happy to show off some of the titles she had managed to find. Appropriately, these included a recently arrived copy of Afronauts, the self-published book that has just propelled its author Cristina De Middel to a nomination for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. This book is also reviewed in the current issue's self-published book review section but was almost immediately out of print and is now fetching astonishing prices on Ebay.

As during my previous visit to Photobookshow I am still slightly mystified as to how this economy of self publishing works. John and Katja both highlighted the role Twitter and the web play in helping these titles circulate. Perhaps John makes the the most sense of it when he describes it as a 'very nimble way of distributing the work'. It is shops like Tipitin that make this distribution possible.

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