The process of manufacturing in Bradford is documented in striking images on display at the National Media Museum.

Last year Multistory and Magnum Photos commissioned nine of the world’s leading photographers to document contemporary British manufacturing.

Open for Business, which opened yesterday, highlights a range of manufacturing, from traditional handmade crafts to modern automation.

Norwegian photographer Jonas Bendiksen focuses on Bradford’s textile industry, documenting the complete wool supply chain, from sheep to wool production to rug, carpet, clothing and soft furnishings manufacturing.

The companies he photographed were Abraham Moon & Sons; Area Rugs & Carpets; British Wool Marketing Board; Calderdale Carpets; Calder Textiles; Harrison Spinks; H Dawson; Shipley Garden Centre Knitting Group; Standard Wool; Texere Yarns and William Halstead.

Mr Bendiksen said: “When I got the commission to photograph the textile and wool industry around Bradford, I accepted immediately but not because I had anything particular to say about the topic, or because I had much prior knowledge.

“I knew that this area was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, and that probably it didn’t really look like that anymore, but mainly I accepted because I like getting into situations I have to explore from scratch.

“Part of me was apprehensive, as it’s often a huge challenge to photograph industry and manufacturing. The facilities are often incredibly sterile, the machinery automatic, and more and more one cannot really see so much of a human interaction with the process.

“It’s not great fun to photograph people in a clean room, on a computer screen. I figured I had to be prepared to find a way around this.

“But when I walked into the first mill, William Halstead, I realised quickly that all my preconceptions were wrong. The old mill buildings were filled with history, both in terms of people who have worked their whole lives in the mills and also in the machinery, the architecture and processes.

“I was intrigued by how much the processes of weaving, scouring and wool processing have links to how it’s been done for the last 100 years.”

He added: “To me, there was something beautiful, mesmerising, even hypnotic about the various steps the wool goes through before it becomes clothing materials.

“The rhythms and choreography of the machinery had its own aesthetic, harking back to the Industrial Revolution. I was inspired to explore this both with photography and video. I wanted to somehow connect the contemporary to the archaic, and the automatic to the human.”

The district’s continued manufacturing prowess is being highlighted in a new drive led by Bradford Council called Producer City which is a three-pronged plan aimed at making Bradford the best place to run a business. The scheme is intended to create the right infrastructure, equip people with relevant skills and increase exports.