Historic England and Photoworks ask people to uncover the stories behind the shopfronts
· 50 photographs will feature in an England-wide outdoor exhibition in Spring 2023, including across Clear Channel’s outdoor advertising screens, seen by millions
· Among the judges, designer and retail expert Wayne Hemingway MBE, artist Camille Walala and Ben Hope, Clear Channel’s Marketing Director to choose winning images
· A year-long project, fortnightly photographic challenges will feature on dedicated Instagram channel @PicturingHighStreets until October 2023, the public submissions forming a record of the English high street and a selection entering the Historic England Archive
· Project part of a three-year commission creating a contemporary picture of England’s high streets as part of the High Streets Heritage Action Zone Cultural Programme, the largest ever community-led arts and heritage programme
Historic England and Photoworks invite people to look at the high street as never before, charting and celebrating the history and experiences of the people and places that make up an often-overlooked fixture in all our lives.
Over the next 12 months, people are encouraged to respond to a fortnightly challenge that uncovers the secret life of the high street, posting their own photographs on Instagram using #PicturingHighStreets. From celebrating local high street heroes that make our places so special, capturing favourite hangouts and meeting places, to recording the hidden heritage of our high streets, the most evocative photographs will be featured on the Picturing High Streets Instagram channel.
A selection of photographs submitted before 21 December 2022 will form a national outdoor exhibition opening in Spring 2023 filling Clear Channel outdoor advertising spaces, outdoor exhibition panels and shop windows on high streets across England. These photographs - alongside a selection of others submitted from January 2023 onwards - will also enter the Historic England Archive, the nation’s archive for England’s historic buildings, archaeology and social history.
The high street cultural programme is part of the £95 million government-funded High Streets Heritage Action Zone scheme, which is breathing new life into over 60 high streets across England. Culture and heritage reconnect people to their high streets and helps people rediscover, celebrate and shape them through renovations to important historic buildings in high streets and community engagement - including poetry, film, music, performance and photography events.
Follow @PicturingHighStreets on Instagram and post your pictures using #PicturingHighStreets. The national outdoor exhibition will open Spring 2023.
