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.
Jade Carr-Daley joined a group for young mothers that meets regularly on Stapleton Road to create a series of portraits as part of her ongoing exploration of Black motherhood. Her work is grounded in a desire to increase the visibility of women of colour, creating a sense of community between those with shared experiences of navigating motherhood and the changes it brings. Jade has been collaborating with some of the historic businesses of Stapleton Road, including R Jenkins Butchers, which opened nearly 30 years ago.
The photographer wrote the following text to explain the image: "The ‘Black Mothers Matter Group’ is a group that runs just off of Stapleton Roads High Street. I was introduced to this group during the 6 month mark of becoming a new parent. I wanted to show people living outside of the area that these groups exist, and how inclusive they are to people not living in Easton. Not only is the group a great hub to just destress and to converse with others mums in similar situations to yourself, but it is also educational. I’ve learnt a lot about my own reproductive health, benefits that myself and my child are entitled to, how to care of my post pregnancy body, and I’ve also been given medical professionals contact links if I should ever need them."
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
© Jade Carr Daley
Photographer: Carr Daley, Jade
Childhood, People Posed, Women's History
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.
