Picturing High Streets was a three-year project delivered by Photoworks to create a contemporary picture of England’s high streets through artist residencies and a public call out. It was part of the High Streets Heritage Action Zones Cultural Programme, and produced in partnership with GRAIN Projects, Impressions Gallery, Open Eye Gallery, London College of Communications, Photofusion, QUAD/FORMAT, Redeye, ReFramed and The Photographers’ Gallery.
From September 2022 to September 2023, people across England responded to themed fortnightly challenges and submitted their photographs on Instagram under the hashtag #PicturingHighStreets. All entries created an unofficial archive documenting a year in the life of the English high street on Instagram, and a selection form this permanent collection in the Historic England Archive.
From March to September 2023, Bristol Photo Festival commissioned leading Bristol-based and international photographers to draw out the stories of Bristol’s high streets and co-create work with the communities who inhabit them. The project, DREAMLINES: Picturing Bristol High Streets, was jointly funded by Historic England and Bristol City Council, and was part of the West of England Combined Authority’s Love our High Streets project.
Photographer Michael Alberry dedicated his time to walking in Filton, covering high streets, side streets, parks and informal public spaces. Walking, necessitates slowing down, moving at a pace that allows for surprise encounters. Through this process, he has created a contemporary portrait of Filton today and the many people that call this place home. Alongside this work, Michael has been working with students from Filton Primary School to explore the idea of monuments. The process began by asking, what do we choose to remember, and what do we often forget? And what would it mean to create monuments to remember seemingly every day experiences? The students created monuments to waste collection, friendship, peace, falling.
The photographer wrote the following text to explain the image: "Goats were introduced to parts of the park in 2019 to control the growth of brambles, scrub, and trees. Stoke Park is also a popular place to watch the sun set over Bristol."
This is part of the Volume: HEC01/128/02/31 Picturing High Streets: Mass Participation Project - Bristol; within the Sub Series: HEC01/128/02 Picturing High Streets: Mass Participation Project; within the Series: HEC01/128 Picturing High Streets; within the Collection: HEC01 Historic England
© Michael Alberry
Photographer: Alberry, Michael
Mid 20th Century Anti Aircraft Battery, Animals, People
Our website works best with the latest version of the browsers below, unfortunately your browser is not supported. Using an old browser means that some parts of our website might not work correctly.
