PHOTO PROCESSING IN CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT

Jobo is a brand with a rather unique place in history.

Of course we’re talking about the Moon landing project in 1969. But we’ll come to that later because the Jobo story actually starts over a 100 years ago, back in 1923 with a man called Johannes Bockemühl As you can probably workout, the name Jobo originates from the first two letters of the founders first and last names.

That name remains at the heart of the company all the way up until the present day as three generations of the Bockemühl family have been at the helm of this market leading processing equipment business.

DO WHAT YOU DO AND DO IT WELL

Jobo is synonymous with photo processing equipment. It’s all they’ve ever known and they are experts in the field. From the first processor the company built in 1932, to the present day, their ethos has been to concentrate on a core set of products and continuously refine them into the finest in the business.

In the early days, Johannes Bockemühl as what would now be called an entrepreneur. He was responsible for inventing and patenting several versions of a photo processing machine.

This ability to focus on what they did well enabled the company to survive some traumatic times through the great depression and WWII until the economic boom of the 50’s when Jobo grew their market share and became the leading supplier of small photo processors.

SO, THOSE MOON LANDING PHOTOS...

It was 1969, the American dream of putting the first man on the moon was about to become a reality and Apollo 11 was primed with 3 astronauts who would go on to be household names (well, 2 of them did. Sorry Michael, someone had to look after the spaceship!).

One of the most important aspects of the voyage would be to capture the moonwalk and place it forever in the public consciousness. Documenting such a momentous moment in history was placed in the hands of experts.

The photographs themselves were taken by a Hasselblad camera but at that point nothing was proven. Only once the images were developed would the photographs be circulated and published around the world. That important process was given to Jobo. From the small provincial town of Gummersbach near Cologne in then West Germany, to the rest of the world.

Jobo’s position in the world of space exploration wasn’t finished there though. The Soviet Unions MIR space station went one stage further when they carried their own JOBO photographic laboratory on board.

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS AND ROUND AND AROUND

Over the past 50 years, Jobo have continued to build on the legacy laid down by Johannes Bockemühl with more patents being registered as they continue to refine the process of film processing. From motorised rotational agitators to Jobo’s latest creation the Expert Drum.

Here’s to many more years of photo processing development and who knows, we may see Jobo on Mars before too long.