‘Bradfield 175’ is a rich visual tapestry of contemporary and archival photographs that weaves together the present and past lives of the school in a volume lavishly illustrated with more than 200 photographs. A pictorial history that reflects all aspects of Bradfield’s ‘education for life’ philosophy, the project was led by English and Classics teacher Oli Gent with the support of College Archivist, Dr John Cardwell.
Oli’s brief was to review the College’s 175-year history and visually compare the aspects of Bradfield that have changed and those that haven’t.
One of his initial challenges was to consider how this narrative might best be conveyed to create the framework for the archive and contemporary materials.
In the end, the decision was a very natural one, the experience of being at school is a very cyclical one, or rather more like a helix, where you go through the same seasonal rotation with similar activities happening at a similar time but that with each year you as you rise through the helix and progress higher in the system your experience and perspective evolve.
We realised that many of the things that definite a month in the College calendar have been defining it for 175 years
