Experienced photographers sought to shoot gargoyles

‘Project Gargoyle’ was set up a year ago by Leicestershire County Council and other organisations with the aim of photographing all medieval carvings inside and outside the churches of Leicestershire and Rutland. These include a wide variety of subjects, from stylised or caricatured human heads to weird and wonderful imaginary beasties. Collectively they provide an excellent insight into the minds of medieval people as many are pulling faces, tongue-poking, or depict such fantastic entities as ‘green men’ or dragons.

Many of these carvings are superb examples of medieval art but so far they have failed to attract the attention of art historians or other specialists. At this stage we simply do not know how many such carvings there are in the two counties, but perhaps in the order of 10,000. Clearly this is a wealth of medieval art that deserves to be much better known.

After a successful pilot phase last summer Project Gargoyle is now looking to photograph and document all these sculptures. The photographs and information will become part of the Council’s Historic Environment Record (HER) database and, in due course, be available via online access. As far as we know this is a ‘first’ for any county to record their medieval and ecclesiastical heritage in this way; when completed it will be a prestigious addition to the counties’ archives and hopefully inspire other counties to document their medieval carvings in a similar manner.

Project Gargoyle has now entered its main phase and is seeking volunteer photographers who have suitable equipment and expertise to meet the standards required. Photographers will be introduced to local heritage wardens who know the churches and how to get easy access. We hope that people who are, or have been, members of local photographic societies will enjoy overcoming the challenges of producing good photographs of these often inaccessible and dimly-lit works of art (although membership of such a group is certainly not essential). Full details of requirements are set out in guidelines available online at www.leics.gov.uk/gargoyle

A limited number of places are available on a training day in early May to help volunteers to understand more about medieval carvings and gain experience using the guidelines for photographing and recording; however such training is not mandatory. Photographers will retain the copyright to their images but be asked to assign the rights for them to be used indefinitely in the HER database. However, because Project Gargoyle is being run on an entirely voluntary basis, no costs can be reimbursed.

If you are interested in being part of this prestigious project to document the heritage of Leicestershire and Rutland then further information and relevant contact details are online at www.leics.gov.uk/gargoyle