Cartwright Hall Art Gallery

Cath Muldowney

I visited Cartwright Hall Art Gallery to look at the exhibited work of an array of different photographers. One of the main artists I focused on was the work of Cath Muldowney; A Bradford-based, self-taught photographer with a passion for photographing people and their stories. Her work exhibited was from a long project she did called ‘Dreams, and Songs to Sing’, where she documented the intimate details of modern Gypsy Traveller life. Her project allows a glimpse into a way of life that has existed in Bradford for centuries.

Nudrat Afza

Nudrat Afza is another photographer I looked at the work of; A self-taught photographer born in Bradford, who has exhibited regionally and nationally. Although Afza’s photography usually involves people interacting with each other or going about their business of living, her works are characterised by a non-voyeuristic quality. These two photographs are from a group of then which she was commissioned to produce of Cartwright Hall Art Gallery and its grounds (Lister Park) in 1996. The rest of the series includes architectural and landscape images as well as moving studies of people engrossed in the building or the park.

Ian Beesley

Beesley was born in Bradford and worked in a mill, a foundry and the local sewage works before attending Bradford Art College and then Bournemouth & Poole College of Art where he studied photography. He is one of the UK’s most respected social documentary photographers.