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Image top: The Dew at Dawn (detail) part of The Necessity of Seeing collection © Aïda Muluneh.

Portraits of our local heroes form the backbone of Aïda Muluneh’s major exhibition at Impressions Gallery.

Aïda Muluneh, the acclaimed Ethiopian photographer, celebrates the diversity of the UK in 2025 with Nationhood: Memory and Hope. This outstanding collection of new photography serves as a modern-day insight into the UK’s four nations – and shines a spotlight on those individuals who quietly but tirelessly work to make our world a better place.

Nationhood: Memory and Hope includes the portraits of community heroes that featured in A Portrait of Us, first exhibited on billboards around Bradford in September and October 2024. Alongside them are striking new photographs inspired by these local legends, shot during 2024 in iconic locations around Bradford, Belfast, Cardiff and Glasgow, as well as newly commissioned portraits by emerging photographers in each of the four cities:

Bradford: Roz Doherty & Shaun Connell

Belfast: Chad Alexander & Eva O’Rawe McCarthy

Cardiff: Robin Springer & Grace Springer

Glasgow: Haneen Hadiy & Miriam Ali

Nationhood: Memory and Hope opens in January 2025 at Impressions Gallery before travelling to Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow, Ffotogallery in Cardiff and Belfast Exposed – making this the first ever UK City of Culture project to take place in all four nations of the UK.

Credits: A Bradford 2025 and Impressions Gallery commission in partnership with Belfast Exposed, Ffotogallery, Cardiff and Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow.
 

>> Explore more events in the UK City of Culture as part of the #Bradford2025 celebration.