Street View, Graves Gallery Sheffield

My photograph, ‘Fountains Fell, Yorkshire Dales, 2008’, from We English, has just entered the Sheffield Museum Collection and is included in the group show Street View: Photographs of Urban Life.

This exhibition explores how photographers have captured city life on camera in Sheffield, around the UK and abroad, bringing together a series of highlights from the collection, many of which have not been on display for over 20 years.

The invention of smaller, lighter hand-held cameras in the late 19th century enabled photographers to escape the restrictions of the studio and take their practice onto the street. Ever since, the street has appeared in photographs as both a primary subject and an informative backdrop, contextualising the rest of the scene. This exhibition explores the diversity of the street; as a social space, as a battleground for protest and as a source of artistic inspiration.

Street View showcases photographs by both internationally recognised photographers and local artists. The images on display span the everyday to the extraordinary, from familiar depictions of work and leisure to images of national celebration and political activism.

The exhibition is supported by loans from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Hyman Collection.

This exhibition has been organised in partnership with the Victoria and Albert Museum, supported by the Art Fund with the assistance of the Foyle Foundation.