A BRADFORD photographer has shared pictures of everyday life in the Caribbean - taken over the last 70 years - in an exhibition which also celebrates the history of the city’s Caribbean community.
Photographs by Tim Smith and his father, Derek, have been featured in the Island to Island exhibition at Cartwright Hall – which has proved so popular that it has been extended until June.
The father-and-son duo captured scenes in Jamaica, Dominica, St Kitts, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana and Antigua - amongst other islands - while the exhibition also features portraits of Caribbean migrants taken at Bradford’s Belle Vue Studio.
Tim, who was born in Barbados and lived there until the age of “about nine or 10”, said that although Bradford has a significant Caribbean community, their history is often overlooked.
“Within the community, there is a vibrant cultural scene”, said Tim, who has been exploring migration and identity in Bradford through photography since the 1980s.
“You have places like the Dominica Association, Checkpoint and MAPA, for example.
“The community has been here since the 1950s, but there’s not been a huge amount about the community in public museums or galleries.
“Hopefully, Island to Island can be a springboard.”
ABOVE: The Renegades Steel Orchestra, a steel pan band, in Port of Spain, Trinidad at the 1967 Trinidad Carnival. Picture: Derek Smith
BELOW: A view of Bathsheba, a village on the Atlantic coast of Barbados, in the 1960s. Picture: Derek Smith.
Derek Smith worked for the British Government and moved to Barbados with Tim’s mother in the 1950s.
After they returned to the UK, Tim did not go back to the Caribbean for “40 odd years”.
“My father had an eye for a picture. His photos are just of ordinary people doing ordinary things”, he said.
“The bulk are from Barbados, but he used to travel to different islands, so there are some from various other places too.
BELOW: Sailing ships, known as schooners, and barges moored in the Careenage, the main harbour in Bridgetown, Barbados, 1960s. Picture: Derek Smith.
“I didn’t go back for so long as I thought Barbados wouldn’t be the same – it became commercialised and touristy.
“But a friend said I should go to Dominica, as that’s where the majority of Bradford’s Caribbean community can trace their roots to.
“I stopped in Barbados on the way and realised what I’d been missing. I’ve now been back several times since.”
BELOW: A view of the Anglican Church in Black River, St Elizabeth, Jamaica, 2017. Picture: Tim Smith.
ABOVE: The shadows of a group of girls eating candyfloss on their way to the Junior Calypso Competition in Newtown, Dominica as part of the island's annual carnival, 2010. Picture: Tim Smith.
Complimenting Tim's and Derek’s photos is work by local poets Khadijah Ibrahiim and Jane Steele, alongside Bradford Carnival costumes by X-Plosion Cultural Arts.
BELOW: A flower seller catching up with the news at the post office in Brown's Town, Jamaica, 2017. Picture: Tim Smith.
Stories collected by Grace Flerin, exploring the links between Bradford and the Caribbean, also feature, as does a recreation of a “typical” front room you might find in a British-Caribbean home in the 1960s and 70s.
Island to Island is running until 5 June and more information can be found at bradfordmuseums.org.
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