Mucky Beck is a poetic photographic exploration of the Bradford Beck and its tributaries by artist Louie Haslam-Chance. Using analogue photography and eco-friendly processes, including developing film with water from the beck itself. The project unearths the complex history and quiet beauty of a river often overlooked.

Once vital to Bradford’s industrial power and now largely hidden or polluted, the Beck becomes a site for memory, materiality, and care. Louie’s process-based approach invites audiences to reconnect with the landscape through tactile images that reframe the river as a living archive. Mucky Beck encourages viewers to consider how we relate to the places we pass every day, blending photography, ecology, and storytelling to create a multi-layered portrait of the Beck and its ongoing transformation. It is an invitation to look closer, to walk, to wonder and to witness a forgotten but essential part of Bradford’s story.

About the Artist

Louie Haslam-Chance is a Bradford-based artist working with analogue photography and sustainable, experimental processes to explore place, memory, and ecology. Born in Undercliffe, Louie’s connection to Bradford runs deep, with much of his creative development shaped by the city’s arts community. His work combines photographic techniques with personal, poetic reflections on the land, often incorporating found materials, expired film, and handmade developers such as caffenol. A graduate of Lancaster University and currently completing an MA in Photography at Leeds Arts University, Louie is committed to making art that is grounded, accessible, and environmentally aware. He has exhibited at Trapezium Gallery and curated work at Impressions Gallery through their Young Curators scheme. His practice blurs the boundaries between archive, activism, and art, encouraging deeper engagement with overlooked spaces. Mucky Beck, developed for OUR TURN, brings all of these themes together in a deeply local and tactile visual story.