If you’ve been in London over the last few months, you would have been hard pressed not to notice the heard of over 250 brightly coloured elephants that invaded the city. The fiberglass creations were decorated by artists and celebrities to raise funds for Elephant Family, a charity set up to help the endangered Asian elephant. The charity works with the World Land Trust and Wildlife Trust of India, to buy and manage land to give the creatures a permanent home.
I thought it was a very impressive an innovative campaign. There were many high profile names involved. That’s not surprising as the man behind the charity is Mark Shand, the brother of Camilla Parker Bowles. And the concept was developed by father and son team Marc and Mike Spitz, the entrepreneurs responsible for marketing both the Smurfs and Hello Kitty.
The elephants have now migrated. They were auctioned off over the weekend, raising over £1.8 million. Shortly before the auction most of the elephants were put on public display at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. I went along to capture the elephants many colourful details and made it into the above collage. If anyone is interested in buying a print, get in touch. I’ll donate all the profits to the charity. Miniature elephants and the official art book are available to buy at Selfridges until the end of July or at the elephant parade online shop. You can also sign an online petition to help the cause.
That’s not the last you will see of the elephants. After London the parade is due to move to New York and Milan.
I'm a London-based multimedia journalist.
I work for the BBC, specialising in the coverage of foreign news for television, radio and online.
I use video, photos and audio to tell compelling stories from around the world.
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