NUDRAT AFZA: KEHILLAH

'… the images reflect the artist: watchful, politely enquiring, melancholic with thehint of a smile. So unobtrusive is the photographer’s eye, that it’s easy to miss what is being explored: there is always warmth and empathy, but there is often a very distant sound of thunder.’ – Simon Beaufoy

Bradford’s Jewish community dates from the mid-nineteenth century. Never large, in 2013 its dwindling congregation had to face the prospect of their last synagogue closing down as its 1881 Grade II listed building was in need of expensive and unaffordable repair. The local Muslim community stepped in to help raise funds and eventually a Lottery grant followed.

Aware of this and of the local Jewish culture that had earlier thrived in the city, Nudrat Afza, a Muslim woman, decided to document it. With the support of members of the Jewish community she was given access to photograph in both the now demolished Orthodox synagogue and in the remaining Reform synagogue. Entitled Kehillah (Hebrew for congregation or community), the project is an invaluable record of Jewish worship in one of the nation’s oldest Reform congregations. It is a collection which captures the everyday spirit of contemporary Jewish Britain with poignancy and elegance, pursuing a path less travelled to reveal Jewish provincial life in the twenty first century.

Born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan in 1955, Nudrat Afza moved to Bradford in 1965. A self taught photographer, Nudrat has documented people’s lives in the North of England since the late 1980s with a focus on the many different communities that surround her.