I studied in Bristol (UK) and so its always been a city close to my heart. It holds a lot of special memories for me and is one of my favourite cities in the UK to wonder around in. Especially with the cardiovascular workout of getting up the near vertical slant of Park Street.
On 1 July 2013 the ‘Gromit Unleased’ charity art exhibition was launched in Bristol and it’s surrounding area. Spearheaded by Aardman, the unique art trail featured 80 giant, 5ft high Gromit sculptures, individually decorated by an eclectic mix of well-known and local artists, designers and celebrities in order to raise funds for the local children's hospital.
The sculptures were distributed around the area with one also placed at London Paddington Railway Station. It's such a clever way of bringing a new dimension to the city while promoting a great cause. Bristol tourism staff estimated that the exhibition generated as much as £58 million for the city during the two-month display, with visitors coming from all over the UK and from as far afield as the United States and Japan to marvel at these giant sculptures.
The Gromit statues animated the city for ten weeks from 1 July, before being auctioned to raise funds to support the expansion of Bristol Children’s Hospital.
I met the talented photographer Steve Hyde at my family's guesthouse in Braunton, Devon (shameless plug) on a recent visit and he explained more about a project he has worked on as part of the exhibit in order to bring the Gromits to life in an interesting way after going on the Gromit treasure hunt and capturing each one on his camera.
"I’m a proud Bristolian and I love walking around the city so it seemed quite natural to pack my cameras and set off with my wife, Linda, to photograph a few Gromits one sunny day in early August.
We started with Gromit No.39, ‘Stat’s the way to do it, Lad!’ outside the Aardman building and worked our way down through the docks, into Millennium Square and onward from there. We were not alone though. We had to queue at most sculptures and found most of them by simply following the crowds. Grommiting seemed to have taken the city by storm! By the end of the day I had photographed eighteen Gromits and was hooked.
We went back into the Bristol the same week and visited another 20 Gromits. I returned for a third session a week later but this time used my bicycle to get around the Gromits outside the central Bristol area.
We drove out to get the remote Gromits and finally with 79 in the bag I bought a train ticket for London and set off to photograph ‘Gromit’ at Paddington. I had a few odd looks when I told people I was going to London to do nothing other than photograph a Gromit sculpture but having photographed the other 79, in my world, I didn’t have any option other than to go. I’m glad I did as well. I felt quite good knowing I’d completed the task."
Steve decided to bring the photo's to life in an engaging and innovative way.
"When I reviewed the pictures after our first trip out I began to think what could I do to make my efforts a little bit different, especially as I didn’t have my kids or grand children (they’re much too old or young for that) or anyone else I know in my shots. It was then I came up with the idea of converting them into polaroid style shots using a conversation action in Photoshop.
Although it might seem a little bit crazy using top grade professional equipment ,which is honed to producing large super sharp, well exposed shots, to generate under exposed fuzzy 3inch square images, I really liked the results. As a photographer I was also forced to totally re-think the way I composed the shots with the final polaroid result in mind and that was quite a challenge. Of course, no amount of photoshop trickery can ever really produce a genuine Polaroid copy but the results are still something a bit different from what I would have expected to produce at the start of the project."
All eighty sculptures are featured in the book with a few portraits of Steve's favourites towards the end.
Steve sends thanks to everyone involved for getting the project out there, promoting the city, generating loads of cash for a great cause and providing so many people with a lot of enjoyment over the last ten weeks or so.
On 1 July 2013 the ‘Gromit Unleased’ charity art exhibition was launched in Bristol and it’s surrounding area. Spearheaded by Aardman, the unique art trail featured 80 giant, 5ft high Gromit sculptures, individually decorated by an eclectic mix of well-known and local artists, designers and celebrities in order to raise funds for the local children's hospital.
The sculptures were distributed around the area with one also placed at London Paddington Railway Station. It's such a clever way of bringing a new dimension to the city while promoting a great cause. Bristol tourism staff estimated that the exhibition generated as much as £58 million for the city during the two-month display, with visitors coming from all over the UK and from as far afield as the United States and Japan to marvel at these giant sculptures.
The Gromit statues animated the city for ten weeks from 1 July, before being auctioned to raise funds to support the expansion of Bristol Children’s Hospital.
I met the talented photographer Steve Hyde at my family's guesthouse in Braunton, Devon (shameless plug) on a recent visit and he explained more about a project he has worked on as part of the exhibit in order to bring the Gromits to life in an interesting way after going on the Gromit treasure hunt and capturing each one on his camera.
"I’m a proud Bristolian and I love walking around the city so it seemed quite natural to pack my cameras and set off with my wife, Linda, to photograph a few Gromits one sunny day in early August.
We started with Gromit No.39, ‘Stat’s the way to do it, Lad!’ outside the Aardman building and worked our way down through the docks, into Millennium Square and onward from there. We were not alone though. We had to queue at most sculptures and found most of them by simply following the crowds. Grommiting seemed to have taken the city by storm! By the end of the day I had photographed eighteen Gromits and was hooked.
We went back into the Bristol the same week and visited another 20 Gromits. I returned for a third session a week later but this time used my bicycle to get around the Gromits outside the central Bristol area.
We drove out to get the remote Gromits and finally with 79 in the bag I bought a train ticket for London and set off to photograph ‘Gromit’ at Paddington. I had a few odd looks when I told people I was going to London to do nothing other than photograph a Gromit sculpture but having photographed the other 79, in my world, I didn’t have any option other than to go. I’m glad I did as well. I felt quite good knowing I’d completed the task."
Steve decided to bring the photo's to life in an engaging and innovative way.
"When I reviewed the pictures after our first trip out I began to think what could I do to make my efforts a little bit different, especially as I didn’t have my kids or grand children (they’re much too old or young for that) or anyone else I know in my shots. It was then I came up with the idea of converting them into polaroid style shots using a conversation action in Photoshop.
Although it might seem a little bit crazy using top grade professional equipment ,which is honed to producing large super sharp, well exposed shots, to generate under exposed fuzzy 3inch square images, I really liked the results. As a photographer I was also forced to totally re-think the way I composed the shots with the final polaroid result in mind and that was quite a challenge. Of course, no amount of photoshop trickery can ever really produce a genuine Polaroid copy but the results are still something a bit different from what I would have expected to produce at the start of the project."
All eighty sculptures are featured in the book with a few portraits of Steve's favourites towards the end.
Steve sends thanks to everyone involved for getting the project out there, promoting the city, generating loads of cash for a great cause and providing so many people with a lot of enjoyment over the last ten weeks or so.
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