Picturing High Streets – Suzanne St Clare and Chester Traders at New Art Spaces: Chester

Location: Castlefield Gallery New Art Spaces: Chester, Grosvenor Shopping Centre, St Michael’s Square

For the past two and a half years photographic artist Suzanne St Clare has been working with business owners trading on the historical ‘Rows’ in Chester, as part of her Picturing High Streets commission in partnership with Open Eye Gallery.

Together they’ve been chatting 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. Inspired by photographers such as Daido Moriyama, Gregory Crewdson and Julia Fullerton-Batten, the traders and Suzanne have been working together to create a series of stunning images that document the daily lives, stories and individuals who make up this local high street.

The display here at Castlefield Gallery New Art Spaces: Chester, in the shopping centre is a celebration of their collaborative work, before it tours to Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool later this year from 28 September.

This exhibition is part of the Picturing High Streets, a three-year project led by Photoworks which includes six photographer-in-residence programmes at six high street locations across England, as well as artist mentoring, a digital nationwide mass participation project and a national touring outdoor exhibition.

The high streets cultural programme 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.

Image: Niki Davies by Suzanne St Clare