NEPN

15/09/2026

Applications for the Artists Access to Art Colleges (AA2A) scheme close tomorrow, Wednesday 16 Sept for University of Sunderland.

Placements will be running from 28 October 2026 to 14 May 2027
We welcome applications from creatives of all backgrounds and are particularly interested in candidates with experience in Fine Art, Printmaking and Photography

Facilities across: Printmaking (screenprinting, etching, relief printing, Riso printing), wood, metal,
basic glass/ceramics, mould making, fashion, 3-D printing, lazer cutting, photography (digital and
chemical), video, graphics, animation, painting and sculpture

At Northern Centre of Photography, residency artists have access to:

● DX and full-frame Nikon DSLRs
● Nikon Z6II and Z7II mirrorless cameras
● Phase One XF digital medium format camera systems with 100mp IQ3 backs for high-end
digital studio work
● Film cameras ranging from 35mm Pentax; Mamiya; Hasselblad; and Fuji medium format
● Toyo and Sinar large format cameras
● We stock: portable flash lighting kits, tripods, a huge range of lenses, VR headset, digital
projectors, GoPro 360 cameras, LEAF digital camera backs, plus many more specialist items.
● Black and white dark room and processing room
● Colour space - A specialist lab for c-type colour chemical printing, featuring individual colour
enlargement bays, colour print processing machine, colour film processor and daylight
viewing area.
● Digital print studio and print finishing area - This space is equipped with 24” M1 iMacs; Epson
A2 and A1 inkjet printers; Imacon film scanners; laser printer; a cutting table; and a large 4k
display screen.
● Photography studios - We have two large pro studios equipped with Bowens digital flash
lighting and a range of attachments, as well as high-end tethered shooting with 100mp
Phase One XF medium format digital cameras and iMac Pros.
● Pixel lab- A large digital darkroom studio, fitted out with a suite of 24 inch M1 iMacs running
Adobe Creative Cloud; flatbed film and print scanners; and large 4k display screen.
● Social / Learning zone and NCP gallery - An open-plan creative space for our Northern
Centre of Photography community to meet, study and socialise. Work in progress or final
outcomes can be presented on the magnetic gallery walls. You'll also have access to
department kitchen facilities.

More information:

11/09/2026

Announcing the Sustainable Darkroom Futures Residency, a hybrid online programme culminating in an in-person exhibition and symposium led by the Sustainable Darkroom in partnership with the Northern Centre of Photography, NEPN and the Photography Research Group: Bridging Photographies, Cultures, Communities at the University of Sunderland.

Supported by Arts Council England, using public funding from the National Lottery, and The Grocers’ Charity.

Through this open call, we are seeking five individuals to propose research and development projects for innovative, sustainable systems in photography. We encourage applicants to think beyond the established norms in this sector, and to envision radical, unorthodox, even outlandish ideas that look at the bigger picture of photographic systems. This includes not only the material, but the philosophical, the political, legal, structural and beyond.

Research topics may include (but not limited to): darkrooms, commercial photo labs, galleries, universities, waste systems, legal/political frameworks, architecture, civil engineering, AI, digital and analogue technology production.

Deadline: 23/10/2026

Sustainable Darkroom Futures Residency - Open Call For an audio version of this open call, visit here. Summer 2026 has been an abundance of apocalyptic visions - images of silhouetted firefighters against a backdrop of burning forests, wildlife trapped as smoke engulfs their ruined homes, and once a...

03/07/2026

Opening tomorrow at BALTIC: Kuba Ryniewicz and Tish Murtha

22/05/2026

Book Launch and Pop-Up Exhibition
Damien Wootten - The Killing Ditch

Saturday 30 May 2026, 1-3pm

St Mary's by the Tyne Heritage Centre
Gateshead
NE8 2AU

About The Killing Ditch
To the north of Hadrian’s Wall, the northern frontier of the Empire, the Romans dug a deep ditch as a first line of defence against some of the Celtic tribes of northern Britain. The Wall itself ran from Wallsend in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west, crossing the region of Tyneside and the counties of Northumberland and Cumbria. The ditch ran parallel to the Wall across much of its length, except where higher cliffs and crags provided a natural form of defence. Remarkably, after almost 2,000 years, long stretches of the ditch have survived relatively intact and are clearly visible today. Some parts on private land are largely inaccessible, whilst other sections have all but disappeared under farmland or been built over by roads, farms and houses. Other stretches of the ditch, now running beneath woodland, have been long forgotten, traces of which can still be found.
Over five years, Damien Wootten photographed Hadrian’s Wall ditch, often returning to specific locations and retaking exact compositions. Through mapping this man-altered topography, he
brings both a physical and archeological context to the ditch, whilst marking historical time through the recording of climatic and seasonal changes. The work also suggests a political and
philosophical reading of the landscape, drawing parallels between the Roman Empire’s control through territorial
boundaries and present-day geopolitics: from Palestine to border control. These quiet images of this historically contested (often violent) landscape of northern England resonate with the past and echo with notions of ‘frontier’ and everything that conjures up: colonialism, conflict and death. Damien also acknowledges the role of photography as a tool of imperialism, mapping and recording unknown territories and peoples - inevitably ending in the plundering of natural resources, and the subjugation, displacement and genocide of indigenous populations.