World's largest photo memorializes former Marine base in California

A three-story-tall image that was taken using a special camera made from an old California airplane hangar has qualified with the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest photograph in the world, the photographers who created it said.

Photo: World's largest photo memorializes former Marine base in California

The hangar-turned-camera also qualified as the world's largest camera, measuring more than 44 feet (13 meters) tall and 161 feet (49 meters) long, according to The Legacy Project, which created the artwork.

The project was organized to capture a lasting image of the nearly 5,000-acre (2,023-hectare) Marine Corps Station El Toro, a decommissioned military base that is being converted into hundreds of acres of parkland, a museum district, a sports complex and thousands of suburban homes. The photo shows the control towers, palm trees and a portable toilet.

The massive photograph will go on display Sept. 6 at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and will remain there until Sept. 29.

To make the image, a team of six artists used a tiny peephole in the hangar doors to project light from the outside onto a sheath of light-sensitive fabric hanging inside the darkened facility.

The photographers used a 31 (0.9 meter)-by-111 foot (34-meter) piece of white fabric covered in 20 gallons (75 liters) of light-sensitive emulsion as the photographic "negative." The fabric alone, which was imported from Germany, weighed 1,200 pounds (544 kilograms).

After exposing the fabric for up to 10 days, they developed it in a tub the size of an Olympic swimming pool, using 600 gallons (2,271 liters) of back-and-white developer solution and 1,200 gallons (4,542 liters) of fixer.

The picture is about 11 stories long and about three stories tall.

The Guinness Book of World Records created two new categories for the feat, the world's largest photograph and the world's largest camera.

A message left with Guinness representatives was not immediately returned.