What started as a few adults gathering in the evenings to share a love of photography has grown into a real community darkroom — a place for the old, the young, and everyone in between. We’ve grown into a vital for workshops, exhibitions, artist development, and even our own working film lab.

Now, we’re ready to take the next step — we’re raising funds to purchase and convert an RV into a fully functional mobile darkroom — a safe, traveling space equipped with enlargers, sinks, workstations, and everything needed for both black & white and color film photography.

This RV will let us bring The Darkroom Chicago to people and places where film photography resources simply don’t exist — small towns, schools, reservations, and neighborhoods across the Midwest. We’re already scheduled to visit Native youth on the Pine Ridge Reservation, where we’ll lead hands-on workshops in developing, printing, and enlarging their own silver gelatin photographs.

While we can always develop film, we want to go further — giving people the full experience of making their own prints by hand, in real time, in this age of AI and digital everything.

Why We Need Your Help

The total cost to purchase and retrofit the RV into a mobile darkroom is significant — and every dollar brings us closer to turning this dream into something real. Your contribution will help us:

How You Can Help

Any amount helps us bring this mobile darkroom to life — this isn’t just about a vehicle — it’s about mobility, access, and preservation. It’s about bringing the art of film photography to communities where it’s been out of reach for too long, and showing that creativity, like community, deserves to move freely.

Help us buy and build The Mobile Darkroom — so we can keep developing what matters most: community.