Picturing High Streets

A 3-year project that recorded the stories and communities behind England's shopfronts to create a contemporary collection of high street photographs.

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#PicturingHighStreets on Instagram

Through themed fortnightly challenges on Instagram, @PicturingHighStreets invited the public to submit their photos of high streets across 31 themes and some specific locations.

  • Ghost Signs Competition

    Over Halloween 2023, a national competition challenged the public to submit photos of ghost signs to be entered in the Historic England Archive.

  • Bus Stop Stories

    Clear Channel and Photoworks partnered with us on a national call-out to celebrate the humble bus shelter as part of Picturing High Streets.

  • Picturing Bradford

    Photographs shared by the public, telling the stories behind Bradford’s shopfronts, were exhibited and added to the Historic England Archive.

  • Picturing Norwich

    We invited people to share their photographs of Norwich’s high streets for a chance to win a place in a major exhibition at The Forum, Norwich.

  • Picturing Walsall

    Winning images selected from over 400 entries to Historic England’s Picturing Walsall competition were displayed at the New Art Gallery Walsall.

Supported by

HM Government
Heritage Fund logo
Arts Council
Clear Channel logo
Photoworks
Format Quad
Grain
Impressions Gallery
Open Eye Gallery
Photofusion
The Photographers' Gallery
The Photographic Collections Network
Redeye
ReFramed
University of the Arts London