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.
The photographs in this set were selected to represent the theme ‘High Street Style’. The brief for this theme was: 'To mark London Fashion week, this call out is all about style. Strike a pose and show us the best high street fashions from all over England.'
The photographer wrote the following text to explain how their image relates to this theme: "This ‘call out’ linked to London fashion week, gave me a really good opportunity to look at what people in Leicester were wearing on one day in the city centre in Leicester. It was incredible to capture the diversity of fashion, style and clothes just in a short 2 hour window one sunny Friday afternoon."
This is part of the Volume: HEC01/128/02/28 Picturing High Streets: Mass Participation Project - High Street Style; 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
© Clair Robins
Photographer: Robins, Clair
Clothing And Fashion, People Posed, Women's History
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