Nudrat Afza was born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan in 1955; she moved to Bradford in 1964. She is a self taught photographer, who documents the everyday lives of the diverse communities that surround her.
She has been a full time carer for over 30 years for her daughter, who has had a serious liver condition.
“Everyone with a phone can take a photograph.”
“But not everybody is a photographer. In the colourful noise of a billion images, a few people stand out. Nudrat is one of them. Like all the best art, the images reflect the artist: watchful, politely enquiring, melancholic with the hint of a smile.”
Simon Beaufoy
Nudrat has been documenting people’s lives in the North of England since the late 1980’s.
She began taking pictures by chance, and only intermittently, but more recently she has worked on ideas about which she feels passionately.
Afza had a hunch that in 2011, the owner of a hair salon might be approaching retirement, and asked if she might photograph it, was permitted to do so, and learned that the owner indeed planned to sell up. For one year, she photographed the salon and its customers, many of whom had been going there for decades. The work was exhibited at the University of Bradford.
Nudrat sees the importance of building relationships with the people she photographs; always sensitive and never intrusive. Her work focuses on strong and positive imagery.
Nudrat Afza went to her first football match when she accompanied her daughter to see Bradford City play at Valley Parade; she was immediately struck by the number and enthusiasm of the female fans. For her series City Girls, she photographed female fans of Bradford City in the stadium in black and white, one of the camera’s used was the Hasselblad XPan camera given to her by Simon Beaufoy. City Girls is a celebration of the passion, commitment and camaraderie of women and their team.
From 2018 to 2019, Afza, a Muslim, photographed the Bradford Tree of Life Synagogue in Manningham, Bradford’s only synagogue, and the people attending it. She had asked to photograph during the services, but the rabbi refused her request, unless she used a telephoto lens, which she did not have, so they let her take pictures before and after.
The City’s synagogue almost shut down in 2013, as the Grade II listed building needed expensive repair work, the synagogue’s few members could not afford repairs; until the Muslim community raised funds to cover costs. A £103,000 lottery grant followed. All of this attracted Afza and she wanted to document the culture and its people, which decades earlier had been thriving in Bradford. Under the title Kehillah (Hebrew for congregation or community), the photographs were exhibited in 2019. She is now an honorary member of the synagogue.
“Like all the best art, the images reflect the artist: watchful, politely enquiring, melancholic with the hint of a smile. So unobtrusive is the photographer’s eye, that it’s easy to miss what is being explored. There is always warmth and empathy, but often a distant sound of thunder.”
Simon Beaufoy
Contact nudrat by emailing her
