The art of dressing as characters who inspire you isn’t so unusual these days, but photographer Cambridge Jones has teamed up with The Story Museum to put a different spin on it.
When The Story Museum reached out to Cambridge Jones to collaborate with them on their newest exhibition, titled “26 Characters,” he knew that he wanted to create something that people would just have to stop and look at. Aimed at celebrating childhood heroes, they enlisted a selection of well-known authors to dress up as characters from their favorite stories when they were younger.
“Just taking a bunch of authors isn’t going to make people interested – and authors aren’t necessarily outgoing people,” Jones said of the exhibition. “So I thought what if we gave them permission to have fun by asking them who their favourite character from childhood was and let their imagination run free.”
With the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre on board to help with the costuming, the resulting images from the exhibit are delightful and fun. There’s a perfect mix of the classic, and the surprising! Each exhibit will feature a character-themed, interactive space around the images themselves — accompanied by the chosen authors reading excerpts from their selected books, and interviews with the authors about their choices.
Jones (as seen in our featured image) was no stranger to the fun, either, as he donned the garb of fictional pilot and adventurer Biggles, from the series of Biggles books by author W. E. Johns.
So, which lucky authors got to participate in Jones’ project for The Story Museum? You can see a selection of our favorites below!
Neil Gaiman – Badger, ‘Wind in The Willows’
Anthony Horowitz – Jekyll and Hyde
Terry Jones – Rupert the Bear
Phillip Pullman – Long John Silver, ‘Treasure Island’
Terry Pratchett – Just William
You can find a handful of other images from the exhibition, as well as Jones’ commentary on them, over on the BBC. Other authors involved include Malorie Blackman (Noughts and Crosses,) Michael Morpurgo (War Horse,) and Holly Smale (Geek Girl).
“26 Characters” runs at The Story Museum in Oxford, U.K., until November 2.