World’s Biggest Photo Attempt

We’ve told you about big prints before, and last summer we thought we had found the world’s largest photo.

But maybe not. Dr. Todd Bradford and his family are attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest (Digital) Photo. The plan is the reproduce the photo at left (of the Discover space shuttle over the Jupiter Lighthouse in South Florida) into 1.92-million-pixel, 400x533-foot, almost 5-acre image. To do this, Dr. Bradford has enlarged every single pixel to a 4-inch square of color. He plans to print six pixels each on 8x12 inch sheet of photo paper and then attach the pixels to plywood in the exact order as the original photo. The Bradford’s are pictured below with one of the planned 6,650 pieces of 4x8-foot plywood the will be used to recreate the photo.

But, the Bradfords aren't interested in hogging all the glory; they’ve made this ambitious project into a fundraiser. Individuals and schools can sponsor a 4-inch pixel at $12 each and share in the World Record title once the project is completed. They hope to raise up to $3.8 million, which will go to participating schools. In addition, all of the plywood used to create the image, will be donated and used by Habitat for Humanity to build homes after the photo is dismantled. The photo pixels themselves will be given away or recycled.

A world record attempt of this scale isn’t only time consuming, but pricey: printing the alone is estimated to cost around $750,000 (they plan to use Costco photo printing for convenience), while wood, storage, transportation, and PayPal fees for accepting donations will run over a million dollars.

They plan to set a date to assemble and display the photo once they reach 75% sponsorship. So far, the Bradfords have garnered enough pixel sponsors to complete one board (each holds 288 pixels).

To learn more, or get involved, visit www.powerfulpixel.com.
—Kathleen Davis
Assistant Editor