A photography gallery in Bradford is on track to see its visitor numbers double during the city's year as UK City of Culture. Impressions Gallery in City Park is expecting more than 22,000 people to have passed through its doors by the end of 2025, compared to 11,320 visitors in 2024.
Anne McNeill, director of the gallery, attributed the surge in attendance to Bradford's designation as UK City of Culture 2025. "As well as having our usual visitors, we've welcomed a lot of new people who had come into the city center to see what was going on," she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS). The extra attention that City of Culture is bringing to Bradford has helped boost visitor numbers significantly.
The gallery's latest exhibition, "Make Yourself at Home - Stories from Bradford," features images taken by five photographers exploring different aspects of the city. Each photographer brings a distinct perspective shaped by their background, practice, and connection to the city, with each section of the exhibition focusing on the notion of family.
The exhibition features commissions from three Bradford-based photographers - Laura Mate, Nathan McGill, and Karol Wyszynski - alongside national photographers Anselm Ebulue and Tori Ferenc. Tori Ferenc's "Sěmьja" (pronounced sim-ya, a proto-Slavic word for family and close communities) draws on her Polish heritage to photograph Bradford's Eastern European clubs and community centers. Her portraits of second and third-generation migrants reflect on identity, memory, and cultural continuity.
Laura Mate's "A Fair Trade" captures the spirit of Bradford's markets, documenting stalls in Kirkgate and Oastler Center before those markets shut, as well as Keighley market and farmers' markets in Ilkley. The photographs capture market sellers and shoppers alike, exploring the personalities behind each stall and the people who bring these spaces to life.
For "From Hope, From Bradford," Anselm Ebulue let the district guide his practice, pairing portraits with iconic landmarks, from the urban landscape of City Park to the home of the Brontës in Haworth village. Shot on a large-format camera, his images are expansive yet intimate, tying personal stories to the places that shape them.
Karol Wyszynski's "Under One Roof" presents intimate portraits of families in homes and community spaces across Bradford. His work explores how families grow together, shape one another, and rely on each other in both spoken and unspoken ways. His photographs remind viewers that family is not fixed, but an evolving idea with connection, care and resilience at its core.
In "Home Grown," Nathan McGill works with asylum seekers and refugees, focusing on Bradford's role as a City of Sanctuary. Set in green outdoor spaces, including community parks, gardens and allotments, the work captures the quiet, everyday acts of healing and growth.
The exhibition will be accompanied by the launch of "Bradford Family Album," a collection of family photos from across the decades from communities throughout the city. It was built through months of community outreach, creating an archive that brings together personal photographs from households, families, and community hubs across the city. Bradford Young Curators have digitized hundreds of images, offering an authentic view of Bradford as seen and lived through the eyes of its residents.
The exhibition runs until December 20, 2025, providing visitors with an extended opportunity to explore these diverse perspectives on family, community, and belonging in Bradford during this significant cultural year for the city.
