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Large-scale photography exhibition transforms city street into gallery

Published October 16, 2025

Hardy and Free is an outdoor photography installation by the acclaimed artist and portrait photographer Carolyn Mendelsohn, which celebrates women living in Yorkshire and explores their deep, personal relationship to the natural world.

The twelve large-scale portraits are now on display from 16 October on the outer wall of Kirkgate Shopping Centre, opposite Darley Street Market, bringing the region’s epic landscapes to the urban city centre as part of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture.

“I wish I were a girl again, half-savage and hardy, and free…” – Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

First commissioned and originally exhibited by the Brontë Parsonage Museum in 2023, this expanded series features portraits newly commissioned by Bradford 2025.

Inspired by the Bronte sisters’ enduring connection to the landscape surrounding their home in Haworth, Hardy and Free features farmers, artists, swimmers, athletes, adventurers and activists, and others – women who work on the land, women who are inspired by the land, and women for whom the landscape is a place of freedom.

To create the series, Mendelsohn embarked on a journey with each of her subjects. Inviting each participant to take her to the place where they felt most ‘Hardy and Free’. Alongside each portrait she recorded their stories of physical triumph and social complexity, as well as personal experiences of love, loss and hope.

The audio stories can be listened to alongside the portraits by scanning QR codes as part of the installation, or on this page.

“Working on this commission has been an absolute joy. I’ve had the privilege of meeting extraordinary women whose incredible stories are deeply rooted in the landscapes of Yorkshire. As an artist, I wanted to explore their worlds creatively, by inviting each woman to take me to the place where she felt most ‘Hardy and Free.’ Nothing was staged; I didn’t plan the photographs or anticipate the stories they would share. Each encounter became a genuine adventure. These women, both ordinary and extraordinary, opened their hearts and shared their stories, and that became the heartbeat of my creative process.”
Carolyn Mendelsohn Artist and Photographer
"Bradford is where urban energy meets rural beauty, a landscape as diverse and dynamic as the women from it. Carolyn Mendelsohn’s extraordinary, rugged and deeply beautiful portrait series gives real meaning to being ‘half savage, and hardy, and free’. From flower farms to moorland communities, women are the centre of creativity and connection.”
Shanaz Gulzar Creative Director, Bradford 2025

The women and their chosen landscape featured in Hardy and Free:

  • Swimming Au Naturel (age range 35-78) [Claire Buckler, Hannah Butler, Jude Caldwell, Chrissy Chelinski, Celia Hickson, Stacey Rushworth, Carol Timlin, Anita Walker]: locations around Otley
  • Meryl Clarke, Flower Farmer: Yorkshire Flower Farm
  • Rachel Coates, Farmer: Low Springs Farm, Baildon
  • Kemmi Gill, Youth Worker and musician: Goitstock Waterfall
  • Aina J Khan, Journalist: Harden Grange Folly
  • Alice Parsons, Producer and Curator: Grassington Moor
  • Ann Durham, Expedition leader: Moorland above Cononley
  • Alice Nutter, Screen Writer: Sykes Wood
  • Furaha Mussanzi, Musician: Peel Park BD3
  • Mela Kalay, Somatic Movement Practitioner, DJ: Calverley Woods
  • Nabeela Ahmed, Poet and Writer: Secret Location near St Ives Bingley.
  • Norah McWilliam, Runner, Campaigner and Adventurer: Thornton Moor

Hardy and Free was originally commissioned by the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth as part of its contemporary art programme. This series of Hardy and Free is commissioned by Bradford 2025.

About the artist

Carolyn Mendelsohn is an artist and portrait photographer whose practice is rooted in telling stories and amplifying quieter voices through co-produced portraits.

Her work has been recognised, selected, collected and exhibited internationally, within solo and group shows including Impressions Gallery, Bradford, Imperial War Museum, Open Eye Liverpool, Portcullis House, Uk Parliament, Royal Albert Hall, Galerie Huit Arles, France, Bologna, UNESCO Paris. Her work has been published widely and includes the following BBC, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, Le Monde, the British Journal of Photography.

Carolyn is Artist in Residence for Born in Bradford, an Ambassador for Nikon Europe and the Royal Photographic Society, and Patron of Photo North.