Luis Bustamante arrived in Hull as a political refugee from Chile on Christmas Eve 1974. After living in hiding in Santiago and then travelling to Buenos Aires, he and his wife came to Britain through the World University Service, supported on their arrival by members of the Humberside Chile Solidarity Campaign.

While completing postgraduate studies at the University of Hull, Bustamante began photographing the city as a way of approaching and understanding his new surroundings. The camera became, in his words, both “a connection to a new life and a shield that allowed me to look at it.”

Made during the second half of the 1970s, the photographs document everyday life in Hull during Bustamante’s first years in Britain. They form the foundation of his British archive and provide a detailed account of the city during a period of political and economic change.