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The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
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Painter Seeks Couple That First Used Famed Mural as Wedding Backdrop

By Janet Upadhye | February 21, 2013 9:59am

DUMBO — The beloved "Water Street Elephant Mural" was painted over on Valentine's Day. 

But it lives on in the thousands of wedding and engagement photos captured in front of the colorful panorama over the last four years.

"It was humbling to see so many people use the wall weekly for a backdrop," artist Craig Anthony Miller “CAM” wrote in a note to local blog DUMBONYC. "Videos, weddings, engagements, fashion shoots, Television Ads and hundreds of tourist visiting the neighborhood monthly."

But it was one mystery couple who incited the trend, asking to have their wedding picture taken in front of the mural before it was even complete. And Miller is determined to find out who they were.

"On the third day of the mural….we recorded the first wedding shot that was taken and started a tradition for months to follow," he said.

Miller's search began over a year ago but has been reinvigorated by the loss of the mural.

"The longer the mural stayed, the harder it was to conceive that one day it would no longer be there, it became a part of DUMBO," Miller said. "But now it remains in all of those thousands of pictures that were taken."

To Miller, the mural represented the strength and survival of a community, despite who or what may come and go. Alexandria Sica, director of the DUMBO BID, thought it represented DUMBO well.

"The mural was vibrant and felt at once beautiful and tough," she said. "Just like DUMBO."

And since the mural has now been painted over and the wall will soon be torn down to develop new townhouses, Miller and the BID would like the chance to give thanks to the original trend-setting couple.

"We want to commemorate that historic moment," Sica said.

Any tips on the mystery couple can be emailed to info@dumbonyc.org or tweeted with #WaterStCouple @dumbobid.