Picturing High Streets Exhibiton

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This March, 60 photographs crowdsourced from over a thousand public entries will be exhibited in a major national outdoor exhibition, touring towns and cities across England. “Picturing High Streets” combines portraiture and street photography to tell the stories behind our shopfronts.

The exhibition celebrates high street heroes, captures candid scenes and characters and invites you to take a fresh look at a fixture in all of our lives. The exhibition is part of a three-year project by Historic England and Photoworks in partnership with national photography organisations to create a contemporary portrait of England’s high streets.

Since September 2022, people across England have been responding to themed fortnightly challenges, from “high street hang outs” to “bright lights to dark nights” and submitting their photographs on Instagram under the hashtag #PicturingHighStreets. All entries create an unofficial archive documenting a year in the life of the English high street on Instagram, and some will also enter the Historic England Archive, the nation’s archive for England’s historic buildings, archaeology and social history.

In January this year, a panel of judges including designer and retail expert Wayne Hemingway and renowned artist Camille Walala, best known for her large-scale murals that transform public spaces, chose the winning 60 photographs. These will go on public display in different forms across England – appearing as on exhibition panels in Bristol and on Clear Channel advertising space across England.

The public can continue to submit their photographs to respond to a fortnightly challenge that uncovers the secret life of the high street, posting their own photographs on Instagram using #PicturingHighStreets until 30 September 2023.

The high street cultural programme is part of Historic England’s £95 million government-funded High Streets Heritage Action Zone scheme, which is breathing new life into over 60 high streets across England. It is the widest-reaching, community-led arts and heritage programme in the public realm that has ever been organised, led by Historic England in partnership with Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Follow @PicturingHighStreets on Instagram and post your pictures using #PicturingHighStreets. The national outdoor exhibition will open March 2023.