Photo-Lab was set up by photo-artist Kenny Bean in 1996 as a mobile photography facility to allow him to run creative projects with rural community organisations. In the early days the mobile darkroom was not as portable as it is now. The darkroom was made out of a metal market stall covered with heavy black theatre curtains. The design soon changed to incorporate a light plastic pole cage covered with one layer of pvc material. The Photo-Tent travelled as far as Carlisle in the South to the Isle of Skye in the West and Inverness in the North. Nowadays, the range of the mobile workshops is confined to Central Scotland. The Photo-Lab is principally run by Kenny Bean but he is often joined by other photographers and artists on specific projects and is asked onto projects arranged by other organisations.

Several years ago the Photo-Lab turned digital as this medium is extremely portable and highly creative. Photo-Lab now has a powerful networked digital facility using 4 laptops, 6 digital cameras, 4 scanners, a fast printer and plenty of interesting creative software to deliver a wide range of projects.
Kenny is still committed to chemical photography through his own creative work and continues to run darkroom workshops. The tin box camera experience is the most important of these. It can not be emulated by computers and was originally created to debunk the technology of photography.

The Photo-Lab has just widened it’s facility through the introduction of Lightspace which is an interactive projection installation capable of fitting into most spaces to present the work produced through digital photography workshops. It includes three computers loaded with sound and video software, projection screens, lightweight aluminium scaffolding and sensor triggers.