Largest photo mosaic-world record set by The
Big Picture
BIRMINGHAM, UK-- 112,896 photographs covering an area
the size of three tennis courts have been collected together
for "The
Big Picture"-setting the world record for the
Largest photo mosaic. Photo: The individual photos were made
up to create a picture sent in by Lucy Moore
(enlarge
photo)
The project, called The
Big Picture, was funded by Arts
Council England to encourage people to get involved
in the arts through photography.
It is now on display at Birmingham's Thinktank
at Millennium Point.
Kerry Endsor, manager of The
Big Picture, said: “When we first started, the record
was much lower – about 60,000 photos. Luckily for us, we got
about 6,000 in the first few days and that reaction continued.”
Thousands of people from across the West Midlands
sent in pictures connected with their daily lives.
Photo:Eight photographs, taken
by people from Birmingham, the Black Country, Shropshire,
Stoke-on-Trent, and Warwickshire, were shortlisted to be picked
as the top photograph from the total of 112,896 entries and
the entire mosaic was formed to display the winning photograph,
which was taken by Lucy Moore, 17, of Tipton, West Midlands,
pictured left.
(enlarge
photo)
She took a picture of a portrait taken
in 1926 of her grandfather Arthur James Bunce, an amateur
boxer, when he was also 17. Ms Moore said: “We all have that
picture in our homes and my brother even has it tattooed on
his back.”
Artist Helen Marshall was commissioned to
lead the final phase and making of The Big Picture. She worked
with photo mosaic specialists PollyTiles to realise the enormous
image made up of photographs submitted by the public. You
can find out more about her work at www.helenmarshall.co.uk
and about PollyTiles at www.pollytiles.co.uk.
The physical version of this mosaic, at 857.3
square meter, broke the World Record for the largest photomosaic
and was unvieled at Millennium Point in Birmingham on August
23rd 2008. You can
explore the mosaic here.
The previous record for the largest
photo mosaic record was last set when 105,196 individual photos
of babies composed a mosaic which measured 660.525 m² (7109.8
ft²) in Shanghai, China, on 27 April 2008, achieved by P&G
Pampers.