The title and sub-title, A Collection Depicting Oxford and its University, modestly describe Nick Cistone’s highly recommended exhibition. It is housed in the beautiful barrel-vaulted entrance to The Oxfordshire Record Office at Temple Cowley, which provides a cloistered atmosphere that suits it well. Sadly this is to be the last exhibition there: in the autumn the space becomes a closed NHS archive.

Each of the 21 pictures on show is presented in a simple black square frame, and each captures the complete essence of its subject matter. The pictures range from a portrait of Christ Church Meadow, caught as summer turns to autumn and green gives way to gold, to the formal linear depiction of the Museum of Natural History, with its complex iron tracery and stuffed beasts recorded in steely grey. Angel Supporting Coat of Arms, Bodleian Library provides an image of a portly and slightly gormless angel resplendent with the coat of arms to the fore, an image that Cistone must see every day as he goes to work at the Bodleian, where he makes photographic records of acquisitions and treasures.

This he now does digitally but in his own time he remains true to his Rolleiflex film cameras, used for all the pieces in this exhibition, which allow him to fulfil his desire to see the world as photographers of 30, 40 or 100 years ago would have, and to share in their disciplined methods and the philosophical approaches they took. Included in the exhibition are a substantial range of Rolleiflex cameras, light meters and the film he uses.

Two images that stand out are Staircase to Worcester College Library (pictured) and Chandelier at Magdalen College Chapel. Both are shot from below and both embrace the nautilus-like spirals that rounded shapes make when seen from above or below. The staircase appears to go on into infinity, while the chandelier seems to explode like a complex firework, with each light a delicate flower shape shimmering and floating as if on its way down to earth.