The Big Picture - West Midlands

The Big Picture film: the story of a record breaking project…

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Audiences Central, BBC West Midlands and Jessops were last night celebrating snapping up the Cultural Branding Award at the prestigious Arts and Business ceremony for their inspiring and impactful partnership on The Big Picture arts project.

The Big Picture would not have been possible without the sustained support of the key partners involved. The Cultural Branding Award, sponsored by Clarke Associates, was awarded to the partnership that best reinforces the branding and marketing activity of business through the use of culture.  

Kerry Endsor, Project Manager for the Big Picture Arts Project says:‘I am delighted that all the hard work, generosity and time put into this amazing project by BBC West Midlands and Jessops has culminated in this award. There are so many positive elements and partnerships that have been integral to this project that cannot be mentioned and I also dedicate this award to those supporters, the Audiences Central team and the people of the West Midlands without which none of this would be possible’‘ 

Ni Singh Chief Executive of Audiences Central says:“The Big Picture was a complex, challenging and rewarding project and we are overjoyed to be the recipient of this prestigious award.  The Big Picture allowed us to share and connect with the memories and feelings of thousands of people across the West Midlands and we are currently working on ways of developing further work that encourages people to engage with the arts and culture. . I would also like to add a special thanks to Kerry Endsor our project manager who worked tirelessly with the Audiences Central Team throughout this project”

Many people have been asking us what we are doing with the world record breaking mosaic. After its three day display it has been dismantled and some panels will be offered to the organisations and community groups that helped collate the images.

But this picture would not have been possible without your input so we would like to offer you the opportunity to own your very own piece of world record breaking history. We have a limited amount of panels that we can make available free of charge to any person or organisation who would like to own one — they’re quite big, so make sure you have room.

We would also welcome suggestions on how you feel we could use the remaining panels. To find out more about how to claim your piece of history or make suggestions on how we should use the remaining panels email [email protected].

Ever been to the ballet before? Well, if you haven’t Birmingham Royal Ballet are offering free tickets to their evening of three short one act ballets called ‘Russian Steps’. This is a perfect taster event and you can see it on 8 October at 7.30pm at Birmingham Hippodrome.

So why not dip your toe into something new? Did we mention that it’s completely FREE?

To reserve your tickets email [email protected] with your name, address, telephone number and the amount of tickets that you’d like .

Timelapse of unveiling by Ed Moore:

Since a lot of people who were at the World Record unveiling were, or have become, interested in taking photos there were a lot of cameras out at the event. We hope that people will share theirs online with everyone, it could be almost as good as being there.

We’ll also collect blog posts, videos or any reaction from around the web here — if you spot any please leave a message in the comments.

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The image created by the final mosaic was selected from the thousands of submissions. Taken in 1926, it is a portrait of 17 year old Arthur James Bunce from Tipton in the Black Country, training as an amateur boxer.

Arthur, who had fourteen children died in 1987 at the age of 78, but the photo has continued to be an inspiration to his family and was sent into The Big Picture by his Granddaughter Lucy, also from Tipton.

Lucy says: “I am totally overwhelmed! This photo is so important to my family. I never got to meet my Granddad but he and my Nan were always at the heart of our family. My brother, Michael, even has the photo tattooed across his back. My family have always been very proud of our Black Country roots, my Grandfather especially, so this is a great tribute to him.”

Here’s what Lucy and Helen Marshall (the lead artist on the mosaic) said about the photo when it was shortlisted.

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Explore the photo galleries. The photos there are a unique collection of images of the West Midlands and the people that live there. You can even help make the collection better by adding tags to help with searching, and comments with any facts about the pictures.

Learn more about taking, editing and sharing photos.  The Photo Pro section has links to inspiration and tutorials across the web, and a directory of photographic groups in your area. There are also exclusive interviews with local photographers and special tips.

See some Big Picture contributors’ favourite photos in our Big Picture Picks section, and pick your own favourites.

Don’t forget you can also explore the World Record Photomosaic in detail.

Everyone who has added a photo to The Big Picture, helped build the mosaic, or even just cheered from the sidelines can be very proud — as the West Midlands has broken the World Record for the largest photo mosaic.

An adjudicator from Guinness World Records has verified the artwork and it’s official, we’re all World Record holders.

The record-breaking work of art included 112, 896 photos, and measured 900m². It was unveiled outside Thinktank at Millennium Point.

The image created by the final mosaic was selected from the thousands of submissions. Taken in 1926, it is a portrait of 17 year old Arthur James Bunce from Tipton in the Black Country, training as an amateur boxer. 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 explore the mosaic online here.

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Eight photos were selected to be in with a chance of becoming The Big Picture. The were selected for their unique boldness, fascinating stories, and their suitability to be reproduced into the huge scale work of art.

You can see all of the eight images and what the Big Picture team, artist Helen Marshall, and all those who commented on the choices said here.

Helen Marshall tells us how the construction of the mosaic is going:

The photos are being assembled one by one onto the two hundred and eighty eight plywood boards by the volunteers and the tension in the hall at Thinktank is heating up.

It was great to meet some of the people who are giving their time to the project and helping with the mass assembly, many of whom have submitted a lot of photos and who keep coming across them in the montage.

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Everyone is invited to come to see the breaking of a World Record on Saturday (23rd August) at 2pm in Birmingham.

BBC Midlands Today’s Shefali Oza will be on hand to talk to the shortlisted photographers and reveal which photo becomes The Big Picture.

The Big Picture mosaic will be 900m² in size (about the size of three tennis courts), and will be unveiled outside Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum at Millennium Point (Google Map). It’s completely free.

Helen Marshall, Artist 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.

With just over a week to go, and over 110,000 pictures received from across the West Midlands, we can reveal the eight photos in the running to form the final image of the world’s largest photo mosaic.

All 110,000 images sent in from the public will be used to create a huge, record-breaking photo mosaic, the size of three tennis courts, to be unveiled outside Birmingham’s Millennium Point on Saturday 23 August. The mosaic will create the image of one of the final eight shortlisted photos, but the special picture will be kept under tight wraps until the grand unveiling.

See, and discuss, all eight shortlisted images.

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Weather photos were a big part of The Big Picture, with over 500 added to the weather gallery. There are shots of sun, rainbows, snow, and it being the British summer lots and lots of rain.

John Clayton has his own weather station and takes photos of the conditions nearly every day — he’s picked his top ten weather photos from The Big Picture for us to see.

If you’d like to put together your own galley of “picks” on a theme, or just your favourites, email us at [email protected] and well put it together with you.

You may have seen Richard Redshaw on TV at some point, as he was one of a few Big Picture photo submitters to be interviewed on BBC Midlands Today. He sent around a thousand photos in, and has been closely following the project, looking at as many of the photos as possible.

Richard has picked eight of his favourites for everyone to see.

If you’d like to put together your own galley of “picks” on a theme, or just your favourites, email us at [email protected] and well put it together with you.  

The Big Picture team were at Dudley Zoo with hundreds of photos and a panel of the mosaic on Wednesday, so visitors could contribute to breaking that World Record.

The Zoo’s section of the mosaic was completed in record time with help from John’s Lane Residents Group from Tipton Road Methodist Church, who were visiting as a treat.

There are still many panels to go, over a hundred still need their photos added, so if you’ve time to help and would like to be part of The Big Picture please come to one of the workshops. You can find full details here.

Dumpr.net (not a great name, I know) has a lot of cool tools for changing your photos into something special.

This photo was made with what they call “museumr” where you can see how one of your pictures would look hung in different museums and art galleries.

If your photos are on flickr then you can use then with a click, but you can upload any photos you have on your computer to try.

Stephen O’Loughlin’s shortlisted photo of people seen though a camera phone was an example of using depth of field as part of the picture.

Stephen has been experimenting further with the technique, here he’s taken a photo of himself holding his shortlisted image and then done the same with that print, adjusting the depth of field.

It’s a nice effect. You can try out depth of field effects if your camera allows you to control focus and aperture (SLRs will, but you can check your manual). There’s a great explanation and tutorial here.

If you’ve enjoyed seeing some of the old photos that have been part of The Big Picture, you might be interested in this website. You can upload any photo and it will make it look old and scratched (as we’ve done here).

If you’ve got a photo editing software package like photoshop you can achieve effects like this by hand, but this site is quick and the results are great.

Liz Combellack, whose photo of Birmingham’s Markets is one of those shortlisted to be come the World Record mosaic, has sent us this picture of her proudly pointing to her work on the billboard advertising the grand unveiling.

Liz says ; “I have a wrist injury at the moment, and therefore cannot currently take any photos – well, not any decent straight ones anyway.  I am itching to get back into it when I am fully better, and being a part of the Big Picture is something really positive to keep me going until I’m fully healed!”

Liz isn’t the only one who has been to see their photo as part of the shortlist. Annie, the mother of Lydia who took a photo of her neighbours, has also sent us a picture.