The Big Picture - West Midlands

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.

Big Picture project manager Kerry Endsor says: “The aim of The Big Picture was to encourage as many different people of all ages and interests to get involved, to help create a detailed piece of social history. The final mosaic is a fascinating insight into the lives and loves of the people of the West Midlands. We know from the thousands of photographs we received that sport plays a huge part in the lives of people living in this region, so I think its particularly fitting that the selection of the final image has enabled us to celebrate our sporting heritage with this amazing transformation.”

Photography was still a fairly young artform in 1926, it was before the flash, before colour film as we know it today. You can see a timeline of the development of photography here.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 23rd, 2008 at 14:20 pm and is filed under Birmingham, Black Country, Coventry and Warwickshire, Hereford and Worcester, News, Shropshire, Stoke and Staffordshire. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.