A PHOTOGRAPHER has recalled creating a collection of stone displays highlighting a Bradford project welcoming and helping those seeking asylum in the city.
Ian Beesley created an art installation featuring three stone displays marking Bradford's City of Sanctuary, achieved in 2011, which was endorsed by the national City of Sanctuary movement (CoS), following a thorough review in 2014.
The award recognises Bradford’s good record of welcoming and including people seeking asylum who have arrived in the city.
As part of his artist residency at the Bradford Institute for Health Research, Beesley was asked to create a body of work about refugees and asylums seekers to celebrate Bradford's recognition as a city of sanctuary.
He asked Bradford Council if he could have paving stones from the city centre to use in his project, saying that everyone, regardless of their background, walks on them.
Beesley's request was granted and he started photographing foot prints in Centenary Square for the first of the three stones.
The second stone saw him create a chronological list of the refugees who came to Bradford were originally from. These dated from France in 1690 to Syria in 2010.
For the third stone, he found that many of the early refugees/asylums seekers bought tintype portraits of themselves, which was an early and cheap form of photography, to send back to family/loved ones abroad.
Bradford City museums and art galleries have an example in their collection, so Beesley spent almost a year tracking down and buying on eBay tintypes that could be identified as refugees and asylum seekers that had probably came to Bradford or West Yorkshire. These tintypes date from the 1860s to the early 1900s. To complete this work a recent asylum seeker or refugee will be invited to write 'Sanctuary' on the stone.
The completed work will be installed at Bradford Royal Infirmary at a later date, after it was unveiled at the Born in Bradford conference in Salts Mill last year but has been there in lockdown ever since.
Beesley said: "Bradford has a long and proud history with refugees and the contribution these people brought to the city and they became part of the city.
"I thought the one thing the citizens of Bradford and the asylum seekers/refugees I realised would have in common is that they will have all walked on the stone pavements of the city centre.
"Photography didn't seem to work for this project. Some refugees don't want to be photographed and it can be quite a sensitive situation.
"A lot of the lads I went to school with in Bradford were of Eastern European descent and a lot came over during the Second World War.
"A lot of detective work by me went into that project. I spent a lot of time on eBay. I bought a few duds, but I had some really good sellers too. It was quite an expensive process. I applied to the Arts Council for a grant and got one.
"The council said I could have as many paving stones as I wanted.
"The stones are on lockdown in Salts Mill at the moment.
"When all this (lockdown) is over, we will take them out of there and put them up at the BRI.
"One of the nice things about working with the institute is that they have given me the chance to experience different areas, rather than just photography."
Bradford was the third UK city to achieve the sanctuary status after its campaign was officially launched in 2008.
At the 2014 ceremony, when Bradford was endorsed by CoS, the then deputy council leader, Councillor Imran Hussain, said: "This is an important award for Bradford, which has long established traditions of tolerance and humanitarianism and of offering safe haven to people fleeing persecution."
Who is Ian Beesley?
He was born in Bradford in 1954 and after leaving school in 1972 worked in a mill, a foundry before going to work at Esholt Sewage works, where he was part of the railway gang.
Encouraged by his workmates to go to college and find a career, he took up photography and eventually was accepted to study at Bradford Art College, after which he went to Bournemouth & Poole College of Art.
On graduating he was awarded a Kodak Scholarship for Social Documentation and started to document the demise of industry particularly in Bradford and West Yorkshire.
His work is held in the collections of Bradford City Art galleries and museums, the National Media Museum, the Imperial War Museum, the Royal Photographic Society, the V & A London, the National Coal Mining Museum for England and The Smithsonian Museum Washington USA. He has published 40 books.
In 2012 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and in 2019 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Bradford for his outstanding contribution to the art and culture and the social and economic development of the city of Bradford.
He is currently artist in residence for the Bradford Institute for Health Research, Gallery Oldham and Yorkshire Water.
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