Since 2021, Tony Mallon has been working as a photographer-in-residence with local Prescot residents, to reimagine the high street and create a contemporary portrait of the area.
Tony initially ran a series of photography and memory fairs inviting people connected to Prescot to share their own personal photographs and local social history about the area. He then went on to establish a Prescot Photography Club. Every Saturday, the new photography club has been exploring what makes up the high street using street photography and portraiture. The group have not only been co-producing all of the work but have been their own curators, editing and sequencing the images and stories. An exhibition of work will also be displayed later this autumn, from 28 September 2023, at Open Eye Gallery, who have co-commissioned the project.
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.
Over the past few years Knowsley Council has put a lot of hard work and investment into developing Prescot. Prescot was selected as one of the 68 high streets to benefit from the High Streets Heritage Action Zone project in 2020. 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.
The £3.1 million heritage-led regeneration programme see’s major investment from Knowsley Council and Historic England into a number of key projects in Prescot town centre. In addition, Prescot have benefited from a series of cultural events as part of the HSHAZ Cultural Programme Local Grants, as delivered by the Prescot Cultural Consortium, led by The Shakespeare North Playhouse.
Image: Barber in Prescot. Stephen Jackson, 2023.