What a year 2020 has been but for one little boy, Noah, who has hydrocephalus, epilepsy and cerebral palsy, embarked on a project at home with his Dad painting colourful backgrounds on cardboard to raise money for the Colchester and Ipswich Hospitals Charity. With a love of Street Art, artists were asked to finish Noah’s pictures. Posting on Instagram, the response was incredibly overwhelming. Not only have they received artwork from the UK, work has arrived in support of this project from Columbia, Italy, Spain, France, Sweden, Germany, Amsterdam the US and Australia. You could say it definitely has gone global.
It was such a pleasure to hear from Noah’s family in the summer asking if I would photograph the artwork for Background Bob charity book and it was great to catch up again with this incredibly fun loving family. I have fond memories capturing Noah’s parent’s wedding a few years ago.
L-R "What" by Monkey On The Street, "B. Brave" by Donk London, "Untitled" by Eelus Art
Seeing the artwork first hand has been fascinating, each one having it’s own story to tell. They say a picture paints a thousands words and they certainly do just that. About 220 pieces of collaborative works flooded in, ranging from poignant images of NHS key workers to fun adaptations of superheroes or well known paintings. I could have spent hours looking at them. With the photographs taken, the book is now available to pre-order from the Ipswich and Colchester Charities.
Background Bob - The Book, skilfully curated by Tony Styles of Studio Stiles
Photographing Noah is always great fun. He has an incredible smile and a wicked sense of humour. However on the day we needed to get a portrait shot you thought it would be great fun to do the opposite! Not to be outsmarted, I had a trick up my sleeve. When I asked you if you still love Rock Dj by Robbie Williams, you beamed with excitement and then I turned you into a background as a surprise.
Noah and his infectious smile
What’s more exciting is super-talented street artist, Nyces has immortalised you on the famous tunnels in Peterborough and has only gone and painted a mural from the photograph opposite his hugely famous Keith Flint piece. Just WOW!! I’m hoping I can visit the tunnels at some point but in the meantime here are the images from Noah’s family.
Background Bob by Nyces
From the 24th October 2020 the Background Bob will be exhibiting the artwork at Firstsite Gallery, Colchester prior to being auctioned off in January for the charity close to Noah's heart.
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