Impressions Gallery, a photography gallery based in City Park, is preparing for its latest exhibition, which opens on Saturday.
Make Yourself at Home – Stories from Bradford features images from five photographers, each of whom explores a different aspect of Bradford.
It takes in the district’s markets, open spaces, and Eastern European clubs.
Images of District markets that will be on display in the gallery (Image: T&A)
The exhibition will be accompanied by the launch of Bradford Family Album – a collection of family photos from across the decades, collected from communities throughout the city.
The exhibitions, which run until late December, will be the last ones of 2025 for Impressions Gallery – a space that has been a key part of the City of Culture celebrations.
A photograph is hung in Impressions Gallery (Image: T&A)
On the same day the year-long celebration started, the gallery launched its Nationhood: Memory and Hope exhibition as one of the first new exhibitions in the city.
And over the spring and summer, it hosted nature-themed exhibition Everything in the Forest is the Forest.
Gallery bosses told the Telegraph & Argus that the extra attention City of Culture is bringing to Bradford means Impressions is on track to see double the number of visitors in 2025 than it did last year.
A photograph is hung in Impressions Gallery (Image: T&A)
More than 22,000 are expected to have passed through the gallery’s doors by the end of the year, compared to 11,320 in 2024.
Anne McNeill, director of the gallery, said: “As well as having our usual visitors, we’ve welcomed a lot of new people who had come into the city centre to see what was going on.”
As well as its own exhibitions attracting audiences, the gallery has been on the doorstep of major events, including the opening celebration, Rise, the many city centre festivals over the summer, and the Islands of Foam event.
The new exhibition was one of the first shows to be commissioned by Bradford 2025, and reflects the many different aspects of Bradford.
Young curators prepare the exhibition (Image: T&A)
The exhibition has been curated by a number of Bradford residents aged between 22 and 25.
The young curators chose which artists to commission and worked closely with them while the photos were taken and compiled for the exhibition.
They also worked with community groups to collect photos and accompanying stories for the Family Album exhibition.
The commissions feature three Bradford-based photographers, Laura Mate, Nathan McGill, and Karol Wyszynski, alongside national photographers Anselm Ebulue and Tori Ferenc.
Each brings a distinct perspective shaped by their background, practice, and connection to the city, and each section of the exhibition focuses on the notion of family.
Sofia, Ukrainian Club, Bradford by Tori Ferenc (Image: 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 centres.
Her portraits of second and third-generation migrants reflect on identity, memory, and cultural continuity. These spaces, reimagined as homes in their own right, bring communities together to celebrate heritage and preserve traditions.
Neil Priestley, Oastler Market, Bradford by Laura Mate, (Image: Laura Mate)
Laura Mate’s A Fair Trade captures the spirit of Bradford’s markets.
Documenting stalls in Kirkgate and Oastler centre 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.
A Fair Trade reveals how markets continue to nurture community and bring the city’s people together.
For From Hope, From Bradford, 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.
Ebulue’s work invites viewers to see Bradford as a single, interconnected community, where landscape and identity are inseparable.
Karol Wyszynski (Image: Karol Wyszynski)
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 us 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.
For many affected by displacement, these groups offer a sense of stability and the chance to form chosen families, coming together in shared spaces to plant new roots in a new city.
One of the young curators prepares photographs ha will be on display as part of the Family Album installation (Image: T&A)
Bradford Family Album 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 digitised hundreds of images, offering an authentic view of Bradford as seen and lived through the eyes of its residents.
The exhibition opens on Saturday and runs until December 20.