Once upon a time, I co-ordinated a series of projects for a community arts organisation called Jubilee Arts, under the banner of ‘The People’s Portrait of Sandwell’. This was a series of exhibitions made with local participants – using photography and text – which challenged many of the prevalent negative stereotypes of the Black Country. One exhibition was called ‘The Golden Mile’, made by young people interested in learning photographic skills – it documented lives along length of West Bromwich high street, which at one point was the longest high street in the country, once prosperous but now, in the late 80’s, much fallen into disappear, partly pedestrianised, severed in two by an inner ring road and a nondescript 70’s indoor shopping mall. The exhibition was first shown in a specially customised ground floor of a former shop on the southern end of the high street. Many years later, when Los Angeles based artist Kim Abeles visited West Bromwich (how we came to meet is too long a story), she was inspired to make a photographic piece about the high street. The final piece consists of two panoramic photographs (over 120 feet long) of each side of the High Street – taken over a period of years, in rain and sun, in different seasons, with remarkable detail composited from some 1500 digital images. The prints have been made in a limited edition of 10, with one set due for exhibition of her work in Bejiing. The panoramas are currently on show at The Public in September and October. You’ll find an online interview with Kim Abeles here at studio-online.com