Melissa Tedeschi and David Duenke have very American teeth.

Polished and good-looking in that American way we have come to expect from shows such as The OC, these two are full of surprises.

The first is where I meet them, in one of Bradford's most beleaguered areas. All smiles and "how are yous", they are incongruous to their surroundings – Manningham – an area which most people associate with the rioting which has hit the city over the past decade.

The second surprise is the quality of the work that has brought us together.

Tedeschi and Duenke are photographers who have studios in Virginia Beach in Virginia on America's east coast. They met while studying at the University of Nations in Hawaii.

As part of their studies, in 2006 the pair undertook a photography expedition which saw them visit Palestine, Jordan and, in February 2006, Azza-Kashmir in Pakistan.

The area had been ravaged by an earthquake a few months earlier and the youngsters were met with scenes of devastation.

When they saw Kashmir, Tedeschi and Duenke put down their cameras and got their hands dirty. They played with the children, held the hands of people who had lost their children and listened to their stories.

When the time came to pick up their cameras again and record the scenes around them, the result was photography which truly got under the skin of the subject and which displays a stunning maturity.

The photographs they took have become the exhibition The Resilient, which receives its world premiere in Bradford this month.

Their photography is full of stunning images which belie their youth – Tedeschi is 21 and Duenke 27.

"No, we have to admit we didn't really know anything about Bradford before
we were organising the exhibition," says Tedeschi.

"But once we started doing our research, we were very excited about coming here."

Duenke adds: "We obviously read some of the negative things about it, but when we understood the population in Bradford and specifically in this area, we were really excited to bring our work here."

It was through a somewhat circuitous route that the photographers ended up showing their work in Bradford. Duenke's parents are friends with Bob and Kathryn Carlton, an American couple who have lived in Cottingley for the past five years. Bob Carlton is also a photographer and when he saw the work by the youngsters, he was impressed. "It was work that was staggering in its understanding of its subject," says Carlton.

"I myself have worked in that area and know the people and the geography of Kashmir. When I saw what David and Melissa had produced I thought 'this is perfect for Bradford, the people of Bradford have to see this'."

Carlton knew about the Manningham Mills Community Centre, based in the former Lister Mills at Lilycroft Lane in Manningham. Once one of the biggest textile producing mills in the world, the building had been all but abandoned. At the
beginning of the decade, property development company Urban Splash bought the building and converted it into flats.

The building also houses a community centre which plays host to art exhibitions.

Sonia Fayyaz curates the community arts centre. She says that the rules are stringent – the work has to have a local connection – and, more often than not, that means local artists.

How did two young Americans from Virgnia slip through the net?

"When the committee saw their work, they were very impressed and thought that it would be something that would really connect with the local community," she says.

The committee was proved correct. Although the Lister Mills development sits in the heart of Manningham, a largely Asian area, the art exhibitions it stages are not often visited by the local community.

At the opening night of The Resilient, fifty percent of the audience were local Asian people.

Tedeschi and Duenke, who travelled from America to see the exhibition and attend the opening, hope that now The Resilient has had such a great response in Bradford, it will travel internationally.

Little wonder they're all smiles.

The Resilient is at Manningham Mills Community Centre until Jan 31. Details 01274 483861 or www.theresilient.com