Meet Cath Muldowney, the author, photographer and former antiques dealer championing her hometown of Bradford

An exhibition of her photographs taken around Paradise Street followed in August, intended to be an antidote against some of the negative portrayals of Bradford. Her latest exhibition, running until October 2, focuses on celebrating life up north, featuring images taken around maligned industrial cities and seaside towns.

Her devotion to photography is only relatively recent. It began with landscape and nature shots, but she quickly developed a passion for social documentary images. “Street photography is a genre and I’m not keen on the term because there’s a lot of people out there with long lenses taking pictures of people who don’t necessarily know they’re being photographed,” she says. “There’s no story there for me. I’d rather sit on a wall with somebody for half an hour and learn their story. If they’re happy for me to take images of them, then brilliant, if not then I’ve still found out their story - and most people do have a story to tell.”

Those captured in her images are strangers she has approached in the street. And it’s rare they’re reluctant to be photographed, she says. “It’s daunting at first but I do think it’s one of the very few things that’s easier as a woman and as an older woman as you’re not perceived as a threat. And I’m genuinely interested in people. I don’t misrepresent people, or poke fun at them, I want to champion and celebrate them…Once I explain what I’m doing, they’re perfectly in their rights to say no, of course they are, but generally people are really receptive to the ideas.”

Cath knows the stories behind each of the images, but she’s somewhat reluctant to share all the details with her exhibition audiences. “I want people to look at the images without any preconceptions,” she explains. “I’ll tell you their name and a bit about them but people are equal and you shouldn’t know necessarily from looking at the photographs whether they’re in the queue for Waitrose or the queue for the soup kitchen.”

Cath describes herself as ‘a people person’. She’s also a fierce champion of the city she calls her home. So much so, that it led to her writing 111 Places in Bradford That You Shouldn’t Miss, which was released in June this year. The book is part of the popular 111 Places series of guidebooks, designed to showcase a destination’s history and character.

It started when she bought a copy of the Leeds version as a Christmas gift. “I thought this is good, I wonder where else has got one. There was Sheffield and York and Leeds and I had a bit of a hissy fit thinking well I wonder why Bradford hasn’t got one.”

She visited the 111 Places website and suggested one be written about the city. “They came back and said okay, go on,” she laughs. “Just to see if it was feasible for me to do, I sat down with a piece of A4 paper and wrote down all the places that I could think of and I came to 80 pretty quickly. So I thought this is doable. People who know me will know I will always champion Bradford. I’m born and bred here and I know the city well. Yes we have our challenges, there’s no doubt about that, but people need to come to Bradford with an open mind and give us a chance.”

Cath has highlighted everything from Bradford’s engineering and architecture to its street art, heritage sites, independent shops and cafes, and parkland across the district. Though she knows Bradford like the back of her hand, writing the book itself was new territory for Cath, who has spent much of her life working in local government.

She’s no stranger to trying new things though, describing how she took on an opportunity to “reinvent” herself years into her career by launching an antiques business. It was based both from her home and from a unit in Carlton Fine Art and Antique Centre in Saltaire’s historic Salts Mill.

“I specialized in the quirky and unusual. They used to call my stuff weird and wonderful. It was stuff I liked, that’s how you sustain your passion. We used to call it chateau chic. They were things that would probably have been quite expensive when they were originally bought but had been well-loved and well-used. They were things that had a real beauty to them that can only come with age, big squishy sofas and battered old armoires. I also like figural pieces, sculptural pieces and weird works of art.”

But “as you get older, moving wardrobes and armoires and chaise lounges and things becomes less and less easy,” she explains. “And the really nice items became harder and harder to find so it drew to a natural close.”

Cath’s main focus now is photography, with an emphasis on addressing the negativity which she claims sometimes surrounds Bradford. Among projects she has in the pipeline is work with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities to ensure their culture is captured as part of Bradford’s story.

“I think I’ve found my niche, my passion and it’s definitely portraying people who may not normally see themselves in galleries, maybe don’t think they’re the type of people who necessarily go to galleries. I’m trying to represent those people and those cultures which are underrepresented or marginalised. That’s what interests me.”