Page last updated at 15:09 GMT, Saturday, 23 August 2008 16:09 UK

Mosaic in the picture for record

The finished mosaic
The individual photos were made up to create a picture sent in by Lucy Moore

Thousands of people from across the West Midlands have succeeded in their attempt to break the world record to create the biggest ever photo mosaic.

Nearly 113,000 people from across the region sent in photographs between January and June connected to their daily lives.

The photos have been used to create a giant mosaic, the size of three tennis courts.

It is now on display at Birmingham's Thinktank at Millennium Point.

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.

The entire mosaic was formed by artist Helen Marshall to display the winning photograph, by 17-year-old Lucy Moore of Tipton, in the Black Country.

Some of the photographs on the mosaic
The mosaic was made up of a total of 112,896 photographs

She took a picture of a portrait taken of her amateur boxer grandfather Arthur James Bunce in 1926 when he was also 17.

She said: "It just means so much to my family that photo, and it means so much that it was picked.

"We all have that picture in our homes and my brother even has it tattooed on his back, it's that special."

The previous record for a photo mosaic was set in Shanghai, China, on 27 April, and made up of 105,196 individual photos of babies.

'Thrilled to bits'

The West Midlands project, called The Big Picture, was funded by the Arts Council to encourage people in the West Midlands to get involved in the arts through photography.

The new record was confirmed by Guinness World Records on Saturday.

Kerry Endsor, The Big Picture manager, said: "The reaction was amazing.

"When we first started, the record was much lower - about 60,000 photos, and we debated over whether we'd even beat that.

"Luckily for us, we got about 6,000 in the first few days and that reaction continued. We're thrilled to bits."


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