The world’s largest photograph debuts at the Great Park on Nov. 5

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: OCTOBER 27, 2011
CONTACT: JENN STARNES, 949-724-6574

The Great Picture: The World’s Largest Photograph & The Legacy Project Opens November 5
The Legacy Project members in front of the Great Picture canvas before exposure.

IRVINE – The Great Picture: The World’s Largest Photograph & The Legacy Project is a multimedia exhibition that tells the compelling story of how six artist/photographers and their friends came together to build what the Guinness Book of World Records acknowledges as the “world’s largest pinhole camera” (also known as a Camera Obscura) at the Orange County Great Park. This exhibition documents how the Legacy Project artists activated their gigantic camera to create the world’s largest photograph. The Legacy Project exhibition will be on display at the Great Park Gallery from November 5, 2011 to January 29, 2012.

The Legacy Project is a component of the Great Park’s burgeoning artists-in-residence program and comprises Mark Chamberlain, Jacques Garnier, Rob Johnson, Douglas McCulloh, Clayton Spada and the late Jerry Burchfield. The Great Picture was created in an F-18 hangar at the decommissioned Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro in 2006 before the military base began to transition into the Orange County Great Park. When fully unfurled, this landmark photographic achievement is three stories tall, eleven stories wide. In addition to The Great Picture itself, displayed on an oversize spindle resting in its gigantic shipping crate, this exhibition — curated by Tyler Stallings, Artistic Director of the Culver Center of the Arts & Director of the Sweeney Art Gallery at University of California, Riverside — features related site-specific Legacy Project photographs, videos, installations and a MCAS El Toro sonic environment by Jean-Paul Garnier.

“The Great Picture has traveled the world to Beijing and is now coming home to the Great Park,” says Beth Krom, Chair, Orange County Great Park Corporation. “We are proud to host an exhibition that showcases the Great Park’s history and the amazing creativity and talent of The Legacy Project photographers.”

The GP gallery opens with a public reception on November 5 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Visitors can purchase signed copies of The Great Picture: The Making of the World’s Largest Photograph, published by Hudson Hills Press.

A special walk-in camera obscura (pin hole camera), created by The Legacy Project in the Great Park’s Artists Studio building, will be available for visitors to experience at the opening reception or on subsequent Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The exhibition is open Thursdays and Fridays noon to 4:00 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Admission is free.

The Great Picture: The World’s Largest Photograph & The Legacy Project was organized by Sweeney Art Gallery & Culver Center of the Arts, University of California, Riverside, and curated by Tyler Stallings. Major support for traveling the exhibition to the Great Park Gallery has been provided by The Orange County Great Park Corporation, The Legacy Project, UCR’s College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and the City of Riverside.

The Orange County Great Park is located off the 5 or 405 freeway at Sand Canyon and Marine Way in Irvine. For more information please visit www.ocgp.org or call 949-724-OCGP.

About the Great Park

The Orange County Great Park, with its 1,347-acre master plan, is the focal point of the redevelopment of the publicly-owned portion of the 4,700-acre former Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro. The Great Park features an iconic tethered helium balloon that rises 400 feet in the air, providing an aerial view of Park development. Other features include the Carousel, Farm + Food Lab, Kids Rock Playground, Walkable Timeline, Palm Court Arts Complex, North Lawn recreation area and historic Hangar 244. The South Lawn lighted soccer fields and Community Garden will be added in 2012. For more information, please go to www.ocgp.org.

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