The World’s largest photo and camera has been certified by the Guinness Book of Records. Measuring 13.71 x 48.76 x 24.38 m (45 x 160 x 80 ft), the camera was created from an airplane hanger at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, Irvine, California. The camera produced a photograph on canvas measuring 9.62 x 33.83 m (31ft 7in x 111ft).

The Legacy Project Press Release

Guinness Certifies World’s Largest Photograph and Camera

Premier Exhibition of This Remarkable Photograph September 6 through 29, 2007 Art Center College of Design, South Campus, Pasadena, California

IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/—The Great Picture—the world’s largest photograph—will have its premier showing September 6 to 29, 2007 at Art Center College of Design, South Campus Wind Tunnel, Pasadena, California.

Guinness Certifies New Photographic Records
In official certificates issued July, 2007 in London, Guinness states: “The largest camera was created from an airplane hanger measuring 13.71 x 48.76 x 24.38 m (45 x 160 x 80 ft). The camera produced a photograph on canvas measuring 9.62 x 33.83 m (31ft 7in x 111ft). The attempt was organized by The Legacy Project at the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, California, USA in June 2006.”

In addition to acknowledging the photograph as a remarkable object, the six artists view The Great Picture as an exclamation point at the end of the film-based era, a marker at the crossing where photography moves away from film and into pixels.

The Exhibition
Art Center College of Design, South Campus Wind Tunnel, Pasadena, California
Artists         Jerry Burchfield, March Chamberlain, Jacques Garnier, Rob Johnson, Douglas McCulloh, Clayton Spada
Opening Reception and Performance Thursday, September 6, 2007, 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Exhibition Hours   Tuesday-Friday noon to 9:00 p.m., Saturday noon to 6:00 p.m.
Information       http://www.legacyphotoproject.com
Location:        Art Center College of Design, South Campus 950 S.Raymond Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91105

The Great Picture was created over the nine months leading up to July 2006 by six well-known photographic artists collectively known as The Legacy Project, aided by 400 volunteers, artists, and experts. Working in their jet- hangar-transformed- into-camera, the group hand-applied 80 liters of gelatin silver halide emulsion to a seamless 3,375-square-foot canvas substrate custom-made in Germany. Development was done in a custom Olympic pool-sized developing tray using ten high volume submersible pumps and 1,800 gallons of black and white chemistry. The premier exhibition at Art Center College of Design, South Campus, will feature The Great Picture along with videos and photographs in an environment designed to re-create the dramatic atmosphere within the jet-hangar-as-camera where the giant photograph was made.

The Great Picture has been featured in hundreds of publications from art journals such as Art in America, Photographie, AfterImage, Juxtapoz, and Black & White Magazine to newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Der Spiegel and The Guardian. A hardcover book on the project, now in production, will be released in 2008. In addition, the Guinness Book of Records pre- approved and is now evaluating applications in two categories: world’s largest photograph and camera.

The photograph shows the control tower, structures and runways at the heart of the shuttered 4,700-acre Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Southern California, shut down in the base closings of the mid-1990s. Once home to U.S. Marine Corps air operations for the western United States and Pacific region (including Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and the Middle East), El Toro is now being turned into housing and one of the largest urban parks in the western United States.

Great Picture Facts
Finished Size: 107’-5” x 31’-5”; 3,375 square feet.
Photograph type: Black and white negative image with a gelatin sizing and a hand-coated gelatin silver emulsion.
Subjects Depicted: The Marine Corps Air Station El Toro control tower, twin runways, and heart of the future Orange County Great Park, with a backdrop of the San Joaquin Hills and the Laguna Beach Wilderness.
Camera: Building #115, an F-18 fighter plane hangar at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, Irvine, California.
Camera Size: 44’-2” feet high by 79’-6” feet deep by 161’-6” feet wide.
Materials To Darken Hanger: 24,000 square feet of six mil black viscuine; 1,300 gallons foam gap filler; 1.52 miles of two-inch wide black gorilla tape; 40 cans of black spray paint.
Fabric Substrate: Seamless unbleached muslin specially ordered from Germany and weighing 1,200 pounds rigged.
Aperture Size: One-quarter inch (6mm) pinhole fifteen feet above ground level-no lens or other optics.
Emulsion: 80 liters of Rockland Liquid Light-a gelatin silver black and white sensitizer hand-painted onto the fabric under safelight illumination.
Emulsion applied on July 7, 2006.
Exposure: 35 minutes beginning at 11:30 a.m. July 8, 2006
Date of Development: July 8, 2006
Developing Materials: 600 gallons traditional black-and-white developer and 1,200 gallons fixer delivered by ten high-volume submersible pumps.
Developing Tray: Eight mil vinyl pool liner contained by a wooden sidewall-114 feet x 35 feet x 6 inches deep.
Print Wash: Twin 4.5 inch fire hoses connected to a pair of hydrants tested at 750 gallons-per-minute.

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