STUDENTS at Bradford College have taken inspiration from the Bradford Museums photographic archive to create a vision of the city for future generations, called Unmistakably Bradford 2016.

Ten students on the first year of a photography degree at the Bradford School of Art first learned about curating and collecting images through a visit to the archive earlier this year. Then they were tasked with shooting a variety of images of Bradford focusing on how a viewer might see the city in the future – 50 to 100 years on.

The result has been an eye-catching set of photographs, a display in Bradford Industrial Museum, and now a chance to display the fruits of their labour in a slideshow on the big screen in Centenary Square.

Andy Vaines, photography lecturer at Bradford College, said they jumped at the chance to work with John Ashton from the museum’s photo archive, adding that students were shown how staff painstakingly identify and date photographs from the collections.

He said: “Given that Bradford is a progressive and exciting city, the challenge was to show this in photographs which could be seen in fifty or a hundred years from now, and would be unmistakably Bradford in 2016.

“Over the period of a month, the students photographed across the centre of Bradford, looking for significant details which would give clues as to its location.

“Buildings, cars, advertisements, clothing – all came under scrutiny for inclusion in their photographs to give viewers in the future a glimpse of life in Bradford 2016.”

He added that on the three-year course students cover editorial photography, including advertising, fashion, documentary, photo journalism and multimedia, working to learn the many varied skills required of the industry.

A slideshow has been put together featuring a total of 20 images taken by the ten students involved in the project, as part of the North in Focus exhibition on the big screen, which changes every two months. This latest selection of images will run from June 1 to September 7.

The newest offering follows on from a set of historic images taken from Bradford’s photographic archive which were shown on the big screen most recently, entitled On The Move.

They were images from the collection of CH Wood, a commercial photographer whose work from the 1920s through to the 1970s forms the largest section of the 500,000 prints and negatives housed at the district’s photo archive based at Bradford Industrial Museum, in Eccleshill.

The slideshows are part of an ongoing partnership with Bradford UNESCO City of Film, called North In Focus, which shows the images at 12.15pm every day on the big screen.

Neil Hinchliffe, museum manager (East), Bradford Museums and Galleries said: “Bradford Museums and Galleries, and in particular the Industrial Museum, have a long history of working with Bradford College and other academic bodies.

“It is really great that as times and technologies change we can still attract co-operative projects such as this to the benefit of all those involved. In the digital age it is useful too that others understand the importance of recording the present in a way which will last into the future.

“The days of printed photographic images are fast coming to an end with people’s memories often recorded on digital devices with a short lifespan. This project provides a way of preserving today’s Bradford for the generations to come.”

David Wilson, director of Bradford UNESCO City of Film, added: “We’re especially delighted to be featuring work by students from the city who’ve been learning some specialist skills with Bradford Museums and Galleries.

“The students’ brief was to capture on camera iconic aspects of our great city that viewers looking at in years to come would instantly recognise.

“They have certainly done that with skill and flair with this new exhibition, Unmistakably Bradford 2016.”

More information about the North in Focus display on the big screen is available at bradford-city-of-film.com/big-screen/whats-on.