A picture is worth a thousand words, as the saying goes. For the creators behind The Great Picture, the world’s largest photograph, a picture is worth decades of military history in Irvine.  

The image, taken at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station with the world’s largest pinhole camera, is recognized internationally, traveling to dozens of international exhibits over the years. 

Depicting a sectional panoramic view of the control tower and runways at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Irvine, the photo, officially known as ‘The Great Picture’ measures 32 feet tall and 111 feet wide.

Jaques Garnier, an Orange County-based photographer involved with the creation of The Great Picture, spoke with Irvine Weekly to share his experience as a member of the Legacy Project Collaborative.   

At its infancy, The Legacy Project Collaborative was a group of Orange County-based photographers — Jerry Burchfield, Mark Chamberlain, Jacques Garnier, Rob Johnson, Douglas McCulloh, and Clayton Spada — who were given access to El Toro for the purpose of art-historical documentation. 

Building #115, a former F-18 Fighter Jet hanger at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Base, was made into the world’s largest pinhole camera. (Photo courtesy of Jaques Garnier)

Garnier and his colleagues within the Legacy Project would become the last eyes to document all of the nearly 2,000 buildings on the former marine base. 

The inspiration to document the afterlife of the El Toro Marine base, which is now the Great Park, came from the late Jerry Burchfield, Garnier said.  

Burchfield, who died in 2009, was a decorated Orange County-based photographer and professor of photography at Cypress College.  

Speaking to Irvine Weekly, Garnier explained that Burchfield began taking his photography classes to the Irvine-based military base for photo shoots, after its closure. 

“It was basically a ghost town at that time, it had been completely closed. Nobody really had much access to it,” Garnier explained. “[Burchfield] started thinking ‘this needs to be preserved somehow photographically.’”

As the Legacy Project formed, Garnier explained the group began “systematically” photographing every square inch of the base in an effort to preserve its history in real-time. Moreso, the group also wanted to document the aspect of ongoing development surrounding the base. 

“We would do perimeter shoots where we’d walk the perimeter of the 4,800 acre site – we would do this once a year,” he explained. “There are a couple big runways there – we would follow the runways and shoot once a year in four directions, and the idea was to document the changes in time.”

As for the photographic methodology behind the Great Picture, the curators sought to use a photography phenomenon known as camera obscura, in which light is used to imprint the image on a surface. 

The Legacy Project Collaborative captured the image by transforming a military aircraft hangar at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station into the world’s largest pinhole camera. 

Building #115, a former F-18 Fighter Jet hanger, was enlisted for this project. Captured on a custom 3,375 foot canvas, the project required the application of 80 liters of gelatin silver halide emulsion, along with the help of dozens of volunteers and artists. 

Today, Building #115, once the home to F-18 aircrafts at the former air force base, no longer exists.   

In terms of cost, the project ran on generous donations of materials, equipment and volunteer time. 

“For example the chemicals we needed — 90 liters of liquid light to process this image — that stuff is $100 a liter — we got it donated,” Garnier said. “So, we were all very resourceful, we didn’t have the money personally to do it, so we had to find the money.”

The final image was taken with a six-millimeter aperture, with a 35-minute exposure, developed in an olympic sized-pool developing tray using, “600 gallons of developer and 1,200 gallons of fixer,” according to Garnier.

The final image was taken with a six-millimeter aperture, and a 35-minute exposure. (Photo courtesy of Jaques Garnier)

Though he says he was brought into the project as an “outsider”, Garnier remains one of three original surviving members of the Legacy Project. 

The project began with a 15 year commitment to photographically preserving El Toro in 2002.   

“We decided to make a 15 year commitment to photographing the base,” he said. “We got really lucky, we got very friendly with the BRAC (Base Reassignment & Closure) commander – he was the person in charge of overseeing the closure of the base — he liked what we were doing and eventually we had pretty much 24/7 access to the base.”

For Garnier, the experience was a once-in-a-life time experience. 

“Imagine you’re an 8-year-old kid and you’ve been given the keys to the candy store,” Garnier said. “It was like we’d died and gone to heaven — you don’t get these opportunities given to you very often in life, if ever.” 

The Legacy Project has documented more than 1,800 structures on the former marine base, submitting more than 150,000 photographs to date. Currently, UC Irvine has taken control of the archives.   

Go and Do: The Great Picture: Making The World’s Largest Photograph will be on display at the Great Park Artists Studios starting on Sunday, Feb. 19 – Saturday, May 7. Great Park Artists Studios is open on Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. The Great Park is located at 8000 Great Park Blvd.

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