Nudrat Afza

Nudrat Afza (born 1955) is an India-born British photographer who documents community life in and near Bradford, where she lives.

Life and career Afza was born in Rawalpindi in 1955. She moved to Bradford in 1964 with her mother and two of her five siblings, where she later said, "I missed out on my education because new arrivals to Britain went to immigrant classes/centres that separated me from mainstream schooling, as well as prejudice [...] and racism in the education system".

A single mother of a disabled daughter, Afza cannot afford her own camera or equipment. Her work as a photographer is a "sporadically-engaged hobby" The work was exhibited at the University of Bradford.

For her series City Girls, she photographed female fans of Bradford City in the Valley Parade stadium in black and white, using a Hasselblad Xpan camera given to her by Bradford screenwriter Simon Beaufoy.

From 2018 to 2019, Afza, a Muslim, photographed the members of the Bradford Tree of Life Synagogue in Manningham, Bradford's last synagogue. Afza wanted to document the synagogue's culture, which had thrived in Bradford decades earlier. Under the title Kehillah (Hebrew for congregation or community), the photographs were exhibited in 2019. She is now an honorary member of the synagogue. Midnight Hour. University of Bradford. The Salon. Gallery II, University of Bradford. September–November 2012. City Girls. National Science and Media Museum, November 2017 – June 2018. Kehillah. Salts Mill, Saltaire, Bradford (Saltaire festival), September 2019.

Group exhibitions 5 Women. The Pavilion, Leeds, 1988–89. Fabled Territories: New Asian photography in Britain. City Art Gallery, Leeds, and touring. 1989. In Focus. Horizon Gallery, London, February–March 1990. With Mumtaj Karimjee, Zarina Bhimji and Pradipta Das. One Hundred Years of Cheetham and Broughton. Jewish Museum, Manchester, February–December 2001. Local People. City Park, Bradford. July–August 2019. With Ian Beesley, Shy Burhan, John Cade, Phil Jackson and Justin Leeming.

Publications Kehillah. Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2025. .