The Bristol Photo Festival will work with Historic England as well as Bristol City Council to deliver a new project, ‘Picturing Bristol’. The authorities are commissioning a selection of photographers, writers and facilitators to create a response to Bristol’s high streets.
Bristol Photo Festival is a new & interesting city-wide festival that celebrates the power and diversity around the city.
The resulting work will be showcased through collaborative projects and exhibitions in the summer of 2023. The project will focus on Filton Avenue, Two Mile Hill, Shirehampton, Stapleton Road, Brislington, Church Road, East Street, Filwood Broadway and Stockwood.
Picturing Bristol is being delivered as one of the activities under the City Centre and High Streets Recovery and Renewal programme, funded by Bristol City Council and the West of England Combined Authority’s Love our High Streets project.
As part of this nationwide project, a new outdoor exhibition Picturing High Streets, telling the stories behind the nation’s shopfronts, goes on display at Bristol’s Merchant Street from today until 1 May 2023.
The photographs are the winning entries from a nationwide call for entries for images which reveal a sense of community, belonging and pride in our local high streets.
The winning images will be displayed on outdoor advertising screens hosted by Clear Channel UK. The exhibition is part of a three-year project by Historic England and Photoworks, in partnership with national and regional photography organisations, to create a contemporary portrait of England’s high streets.
Picturing Bristol will be an interim project by Bristol Photo Festival before its second edition in Autumn 2024; more information about this will be announced in Autumn 2023, said the authorities.
The festival is anticipated to be one of the grandest events to be held in the southwest region of England. It will showcase local artists, particularly photographers demonstrating their creativity through their captured images.
