In 2022-23 Historic England commissioned several photographers to work with local communities to capture images representative of their local high streets. This formed part of the Picturing High Streets project. In Chester, Suzanne St Clare was commissioned as photographer. She wrote the following text to describe her work on the project: “My response to the residency was to work creatively with business owners trading on the historical Rows in Chester.
Initially we started by finding out about how these business owners came to Chester, their community, challenges, the quirkiness of independent trading and their love and passion for this beautiful, historic city...." This film was created as a result of the residency, as a collaboration between Suzanne St Clare and Mark Boyland, the shop owner. Suzanne St Clare wrote the following text about the project: "Initially we started by finding out about how these business owners came to Chester, their community, challenges, the quirkiness of independent trading and their love and passion for this beautiful, historic city. In the first year the traders were shown the work of Japanese photographer, Daido Moriyama who shot using black and white film with little regard to composition. The traders didn’t have much spare time, and most weren’t familiar with using a camera, so by using disposable film cameras, there was no pressure to ‘examine’ what they were photographing. The traders photographed their working lives and businesses in a similar style to Daido Moriyama. I hadn’t intended to use the audio from the interviews, it had been to accurately record what had been said, however, playing it back, the interaction with the customers, the background shop noise and doorbells conjured up such a sense of independent trading in England that the audio was used to accompany the photographs... The films depict each trader’s personal story, images from their businesses and the authentic interaction with customers which conveys the essence of independent high street trading." This film shows the Chester Model Centre, including details of the inside of the retail space, view from the shop counter, the shop owner and his son, and the shop owner as a young boy. The audio was provided by Paul Boyland.
This is part of the Job: HEC01/128/01/06/04 Picturing High Streets Photographer Residencies - Suzanne St Clare: Chester, Films; within the Volume: HEC01/128/01/06 Picturing High Streets Photographer Residencies - Suzanne St Clare: Chester; within the Sub Series: HEC01/128/01 Picturing High Streets: Photographer Residencies; within the Series: HEC01/128 Picturing High Streets; within the Collection: HEC01 Historic England
© Suzanne St Clare
Photographer: St Clare, Suzanne
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