Description:

At 4 Church Road, Wimbledon Park, London lies the most photographed patch of grass in history. Spanning 78 by 36 feet, it’s been the stage for not only the oldest tennis tournament in the world but the progression of historical, social, and cultural change too.

This year marked 100 years since King George V declared Centre Court open. And to celebrate, Wimbledon partnered with Glorious, Aotearoa’s leading digital art marketplace, to launch a collection that celebrated the rich history of the hallowed grounds.

Introducing The Centenary Collection. 10 decades, 10 digital artworks, 100 years through the lens of Centre Court.

This was an ambitious project, distilling and sorting through multiple archives with hundreds of thousands of historic photographs to produce artworks akin to photo essays, each telling the most important Wimbledon stories.

Presented in contact sheet-inspired layouts, each photograph was lovingly restored to the medium it was captured in. Working alongside Wimbledon's historians to research, re-scan, and re-build images, the process was painstaking but worth it for the exceptional set of photographs that emerged. Accompanying the final selected images are short annotations and footnotes set in decade-specific calligraphy that capture each period in time.

Upon launch, The Centenary Collection was celebrated by tennis fans across the world and received global media attention in the likes of Complex and The Independent, and was amplified by a global campaign that went live across film, OOH, social, print, eDM, and on-site media at the Wimbledon grounds.

Finally, to celebrate the full turn of the century, the 2010-2022 artwork entitled ‘The Superhumans’ was purposely left unfinished, leaving one remaining spot for an exceptional moment from this year's Championship to be voted on by fans. With a new breed of rising stars, and the decision to ban players from Russia and Belarus in response to the invasion of Ukraine, this moment will certainly be emotionally-charged and iconic.

At the time of this award submission, the ballot to purchase just one of these incredible digital artworks (RRP: £500) had over 40,000 entries. And with only 1,000 lucky applicants given this once-in-a-century opportunity to buy, the collection is sure to sell out.