ELEVEN tonnes of sand have been poured over the floor of a Bradford art gallery for an immersive beach-themed exhibition.

The sights, sounds and textures of the seaside have been brought to Fuse Art Space for its specially-curated show, Bradford Beach.

The exhibition opened on Saturday with live music from Awesome Tapes From Africa, a licensed bar and street food.

The team behind the art space decided to bring the beach to Bradford for its summer exhibition, after being inspired by annual event Paris Plages, which sees the French capital taken over by deckchairs and ice-cream sellers.

They commissioned four photographers living near the north, south, east and west coasts of Britain to take a seascape image on exactly the same day, July 8 this year.

Photographer Celia Jackson used a biscuit tin and a coffee tin to make a pinhole camera, which she used to photograph Southerndown beach in Wales.

Her work, Full Fathom Five, was in part a reaction to the tragic death of her father, who died in the sea in the Canary Islands in 2011.

She said: "The images made for Full Fathom Five represent my first hesitant steps towards making something positive from the memories of that terrible day."

Sharon Harvey also used pinhole photography to capture the Yorkshire coast at Thornwick Bay, Julie Dawn Dennis used a home-built camera at John O'Groats in Scotland and Jim Stephenson photographed the iconic Brighton Beach and its burnt-out West Pier.

Their images have been complemented with specially commissioned soundscapes of the coast by BJ Nilsen, Tara Jane ONeil, Mike Harding, Patrick Farmer, Rough Fields, Jez Riley French and MV Carbon.

And the finishing touch was the carpet of sand laid over the exhibition floor.

Fuse co-director Sarah Faraday said: "A builder, W Madden Limited, kindly donated the sand, which they will pick up again. They delivered 11 tonnes of sand on Tuesday, it came on a big truck and had to be lifted off by a crane.

"It took five people about half a day to shovel it all in with wheelbarrows and things like that."

Bradford Beach runs until September 29 and entry is free.

Fuse Art Space, in Rawson Place, Bradford, is open from 11am to 6pm, Wednesdays to Saturday.