Picturing High Streets. Tim Mills in Coventry

An image of Grain Photography's website and specifically the page relating to Tim Mills' work.

It was really interesting to hear Tim Mills talk about his Photographer in Residence project, working with Grain Photography and funded by Historic England. This was by zoom on November 17th 2022. This is a national scheme called Picturing High Streets that is looking at the England’s historic high streets as represented in designated Heritage Action Zones. Tim focused on The Burges in Coventry; as small area of the City Centre.

Whilst he had no real personal history with the area his parents and his aunt had. He really drew on these links in part of his work, using images of his parents wedding and revisiting the exact spot that their wedding photos were taken. He admitted at times he was not sure exactly what would result from this residence and he talked about possible approaches that didn’t materialise or come to fruition.

He focused in the end on the taxi rank and the drivers who frequently used it; highlighting the different objects that hung from their rear view mirrors. A magic approach. He looked at the new students coming into the student accomodation; he joined in by having his hair cut in a local barbers - the style chosen by local young people. His talk showed the breadth of his thinking and his approaches and show what a success he had had with what was a difficult task. Really enjoyed it. For more details take a look at Grain Photography’s website.