Reflections Along the Mucky Beck

 

This project is a personal and poetic response to the Bradford Beck; a hidden, often neglected waterway that runs through the heart of the city. I began photographing the Beck as I was drawn to its overlooked beauty and complex history, but as I walked its path, I found myself thinking more deeply about my own roots, memory, and emotional connection to this land. 

The work took shape as a series of images quietly pairing black-and-white photographs of the Beck with handwritten captions drawn from reflections I wrote while looking through old family archives. Each caption is a fragment of memory; moments of care, conflict, grief, and unresolved emotion. In many cases, the words have no direct link to the photographs, yet together they create new meanings and connections. 

 

 

Technically, the project also involves an environmentally mindful process. I shot the project on 35mm film which was then developed using a sustainable recipe (caffenol) and water gathered from various points along the Beck. This physical connection embeds the place directly into the material of the images, making the land a key part of the image-making process. 

Ultimately, this project is about memory and how it’s connected to different physical spaces, and how the landscapes we live alongside can hold our histories. The project invites quiet reflection on the overlooked; both the buried river running beneath Bradford and the hidden emotions/memories held in family history.