The Antithesis of Digital

You gotta love those Californians.

Even as we speak, the world's largest photograph is being made by the world's largest camera. Since I have been bemoaning the death of cameras and film, I was heartened to read this story, and it seemed particularly appropriate that the image being documented was of a landscape that was about to disappear. Oh, so poignant.

If all goes well, within days the air hangar-turned-camera will record a panoramic image of what's on the other side of the door using the centuries-old principle of camera obscura. ( And, having been inside the camera obscura at the Cliff House in Ocean Beach, San Francisco, I am also a fan of the technique)

An image of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station will appear upside down and flipped left to right on a sheath of light-sensitive fabric after being projected through the tiny hole in the hangar's metal door. The fabric is the length of one-third of a football field and about three stories tall.

The photographers are using a 31 x 111 foot piece of white fabric covered in 20 gallons of light-sensitive emulsion as the negative. After exposing the fabric for up to 10 days, they will develop it in a huge tub made of pool siding, using 200 gallons of black-and-white developer solution and 600 gallons of fixer.

The photographers joke that they are also making the world's largest disposable camera since when the photos is completed, the hangar will be torn down.

This project is about being deep inside photography, in the sense that you can walk inside the camera. It's the origins of photography and we've been living in it for weeks at a time said Doug McCulloh, a photography teacher at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

No word on the availability of wallet size prints...