The 15 winning photographs from our 2011 competition click here

The photography competition

In October 2011 we launched a competition inviting members of the public to send us photographs of the Shoreditch and Hoxton areas, with a view to having them displayed on our new Vertical Gallery in Old Street. The two conditions were that they were in black and white and taken on a mobile phone. The photographs will be mounted onto Plexiglass sheets that will be visible during the day by natural light and at night from the tower's internal light.

The 15 winning images were selected by a panel of six judges, including Shoreditch-based designer Paul Daly, Thomas Kulbokas, co-founder of 'Made in Shoreditch' magazine, writer and producer Anna Starkey, and primatologist Isabel Behncke Izquierdo of Oxford University, as well as Beau Lotto and Emily Hatchwell of Lottolab.

The 6-metre tall Vertical Gallery will lie at the heart of one of London's most energetic and creative communities, at the busy junction of Old Street and Great Eastern Street. We plan to open the gallery in early 2012, and there will be a public opening hosted by Lottolab and the Roadtrip Bar, adjacent to the tower.

The background

Community is central to our well-being, as it's where we find the space and support to risk and explore. And while 'public' art often attempts to reflect community, usually it's not FOR the public, much less BY the public. Lottolab, in collaboration with designer Paul Daly, is seeking to subvert this trend by creating the Vertical Gallery, located on a city street and designed to exhibit photographic images taken BY the public, OF the public and FOR the public.

The basis of the gallery is a light installation created by Lottolab in 2008. The Plexiglass panels, on which the gallery's photographs will be mounted, are visible during the day by natural light and at night from the tower's internal light.

The aim is to solicity new images for the Vertical Gallery every six to twelve months, though our larger ambition is to create multiple towers around London, each celebrating the local areas that make up the larger context of London.

For further information about the Vertical Gallery, please contact Beau Lotto

Location

The location of the Vertical Gallery is on the north side of Old Street, near the junction with Great Eastern Street, just one minute's walk from Old Street underground station (Northern Line) and not far from Liverpool Street (Central Line). The postcode of the Roadtrip Bar, right next to the tower, is EC1V 9EY.