HOW TO DONate
You can donate your creative books or equipment to the project.
You can post books to us, we can collect books from your office or in person so do get in touch and we’ll work it out.
Every book donated goes directly to our programs to inspire student photographers.
Portrait photographer
Tom Oldham has been collecting photo-books for state shools
IT STARTED AT HIS OLD SCHOOL IN DORSET
While delivering a workshop to the students there, he noticed they didn’t have an active library of technical, reference or art books. Photo-books are a valuable resource to large groups of students who can’t access quality photography bookshops, galleries or shows. So Tom decided to empty his shelves of some lovely but under-utilised photo-books.
“Then it occurred to me that I can’t be the only one with photo-books to spare. I put what I was doing out on my socials, asking others if they would donate books too and the result was astonishing. People brought wonderful, heavy books to me from all over the country. It really has been a beautiful sharing experience.”
THE PROBLEM
Some state schools we work with have seen funding for art materials cut from £8.25 to £1.85 per child, per year. They are under-funded and cannot afford expensive resource like photobooks.
“Art and Photography GCSE and A level students are expected to draw ideas and inspiration from a range of contextual sources, in order to develop their own body of work. Unfortunately, many schools are unable to provide a wealth of resources, such as photo books, due to shredded budgets and underfunding in state schools.”
Rachel Jones, photography teacher in Edmonton, London
THE SOLUTION
We believe that all student photographers deserve to have access to great quality resources for their arts education, and the solution to that lies in inspiring them with printed photography books.
Since our first drop, we have so far donated:
5000+ photo-books
16x Sony kits
2x Profoto mobile lighting rigs
3 x Epson printers, with inks and media
To fourteen state schools around the UK (with more on the way).
The project has so far been generously supported by several book publishers and a huge swell of generous photographers across the country, all kindly donating their art and photo-books as well as:
“THANK YOU. I’m writing this surrounded by your acts of kindness. 4 large tables of photobooks that will benefit students today and in the future. The creative capacity of young people is often overlooked and underappreciated. When industry professionals and supportive others stand up and show interest, it resonates deeply.”
Chris Francis, St Peters School, Bournemouth
“Please pass on our thanks to the many people and institutions who donated books. It is good to know there is a community of creative people outside school that recognise the value of supporting the state education system.”
“The books are an amazing asset and we have them in the classroom so that all students have easy access to them.
[Access to and activities with the photobooks have] had a really positive impact upon not only on broadening their minds to different forms and themes in photography but also in terms of their self confidence and self esteem in talking to their peers. The discussions which evolve as a result of this are so valuable.”
Clare Darley, photography teacher in Wimborne, Dorset
GET INVOLVED
DONATE BOOKS
You can donate your creative books or equipment to the project.
You can post books to us, we can collect books from your office or in person so do get in touch and we’ll work it out.
Every book donated goes directly to our programs to educate more children.
ONE OFF DONATION
You can make a donation so we can buy books to build libraries or fund equipment.