Artists Grow Photos For Wimbledon

For this years Wimbledon Tennis Championship, HSBC commissioned artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey to create a series of large photographs using one of their favorite mediums, grass. The pair started by photographing three people prior to the event; Tara Moore who competed in the qualifying tournament, Eddie Seaward the 15 year veteran groundsman at Wimbledon, and Coach Lizzie May who guides the Wimbledon Junior Tennis Initiative.

Back in the studio the artists develop the photos in a very similar way to printing in a darkroom. Large panels are seeded with grass and the images are projected on to them as negatives. The areas that get more light allow the grass to produce more chlorophyll and darken. It took about a week for projecting the image for 12 hours a day to complete the Wimbledon work.

The pair actually discovered this technique by accident. A few years back they were installing an indoor wall of grass in a gallery and left a ladder leaning against it.  When they later moved it, a faint outline  of  the ladder appeared. The artists then began to experiment with projecting images onto grass with a slide projector. Once the panels are exposed to sunlight or bring interior lights thought they begin to fade. They have developed light control techniques to lengthen the effect in gallery spaces.

[via creative review]