In a statement issued today, the Association of Photographers has announced that following its "decision in December 2010 to close the AOP Gallery this year," it has now sold the building it owned in Leonard Street in east London.

The Association is expected to lease some of the space until "it has found and purchased new, more suitable premises," it claims.

The news comes after the Association of Photographers was forced to cancel its awards ceremony last year as it faced financial difficulties. Speaking to BJP in September 2010, Kingsley Marten, the AoP's managing director, said that the decision was made after the organisation failed to cover the costs from the 2009 ceremony. "We have always held a very grand presentation which for the last few years was at Sadlers Wells theatre," he said. "However, despite good numbers at last year's event, we failed to cover the costs of putting it on, which we can see was directly related to the recession!"

He continued: "One large contributory factor was a sudden lack of ticket sales to commissioners, agents and agencies from within the industry, in the weeks immediately leading up to the event, which left us short of income to help cover the cost [...] It is still a very challenging time for all of us in the industry and whilst we are very disappointed not to be holding the presentation event, we felt it prudent to take the decisions we have, to enable us to continue to campaign, lobby and provide other services that are fundamental to members."

Six months later, in February 2011, the membership voted in favour of selling the Leonard Street building, with the goal to close down the Gallery in August. Since [February], things have moved along nicely and we sold the building for a lot more than we had hoped," Marten tells BJP. "Suffice to say, we have paid off all our borrowing and are now looking to purchase new premises for cash, whilst keeping some funds as a reserve for the future."

The Association's Gallery was first opened 25 years ago, and moved to Leonard Street in 1998. Now, the AOP says that the sale will allow the organisation to focus on "the core activities of the Association and be able to offer more to members."

It adds: "With the growth of online galleries and other means of disseminating work, demand from members to use the Gallery has fallen to a trickle over the last few years, leading the Board to suggest that the resources required to keep it open, could be better channeled into other activities that provide far stronger benefits to the membership as a whole."

However, the AOP claims that it will continue "to curate and produce exhibitions of members' work, predominately through its Awards Shows." The Photographers Awards exhibition and ceremony will take place at P3 in Marylebone, while the Assistant Awards and Open Awards will, respectively, take over the Hoxton Gallery and the Truman Brewery.

The AOP also plans to use "suitable and appropriate spaces, borrowed or hired" to hold its monthly career talks, portfolio critiques and one-off seminars.

"Change can be difficult," says the AOP, "but we believe that this opportunity presents us with a new and exciting time for the Association which will allow us to focus more on the activities that benefit our entire membership and encourage more to join us [...] The business of photography has never been tougher and there are huge pressures facing our members and the industry as a whole. It is fundamentally important that we continue to support our members in every way we can."