On the twentieth anniversary of the making of The Great Picture (2006), this exhibition revisits the project that set the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest print photograph. The exhibition includes documentary images of the finished photograph and the process used to create it, as well as commentary from the artists. While The Great Picture itself is not exhibited, this presentation tells the story of its making with behind-the-scenes documentation including audio, video, and still images. Starting in July, the exhibition will feature a new virtual re-staging of The Great Picture developed by artist Jonathan Turner. Using game engine technology, this interactive experience will allow visitors to explore the massive photograph in a simulated environment, either through Virtual Reality (VR) or screen-based first-person mode, offering a unique perspective on the scale and context of The Great Picture.

The Great Picture was made by six artists—Jerry Burchfield, Mark Chamberlain, Jacques Garnier, Rob Johnson, Douglas McCulloh, and Clayton Spada—who documented the decommissioned Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) El Toro, near Irvine, CA. They transformed an abandoned jet hangar into a pinhole camera, thus creating the world’s largest camera to make the world’s largest photograph. The final immense, unique gelatin silver print on fabric measured over 31 feet high and 111 feet wide. Calling their collective work “The Legacy Project,” the project marked the end of 170 years of film-based photography and the start of the digital era. In its focus on the decommissioned MCAS El Toro—established during World War II and operative through the end of the 1990s—The Great Picture draws a connection between the history of photography and the technological developments of warfare: from analog to digital, from direct combat to drones.

The Great Picture: Revisiting the Legacy Project is guest curated by Dawn Hassett, with contributions from Nikolay Maslov, Curator of Special Projects. The exhibition is organized in conjunction with the retrospective exhibition Dispatches: The Photography of Douglas McCulloh, 1990–2025, on view at the museum in fall 2026.

The Great Picture: Revisiting the Legacy Project was made possible with generous support from an anonymous donor. Programs at UCR ARTS are supported by the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CHASS), and by the City of Riverside.

Image: Jacques Garnier, Raising the Canvas, 2006. Courtesy of the artist.