Douglas McCulloh - Knowledge (XXG)

261:. As of September 2007, the six photographers – Jerry Burchfield, Mark Chamberlain, Jacques Garnier, Rob Johnson, Douglas McCulloh, and Clayton Spada – had made more than 90,000 photographs, according to reports published by arts writer Liz Goldner. For 50 years, the 4,700-acre El Toro base was at the heart of Marine Corps air operations, playing pivotal roles in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the first Gulf War. In an extensive essay, art critic and curator Mark Johnstone, equates the ambitious scope and scale of the Legacy Project to other major photographic surveys, specifically the geographic surveys of the American West in the 1800s, the Historical Section of the 395: 109:

have control over things", McCulloh told interviewer Marilyn Thomsen in 2003, "but I think the world mostly operates by strange chance. If the world operates by chance, why not use as a way of encountering the world directly?" In 2009, McCulloh summarized his methods: "I create systems driven by chance operations: random sampling, chance drawings, map

113:. Then I set the systems in motion and record what chance provides." Art critic Christopher Miles positioned McCulloh's strategy within art history: "In order to take both his own preconceptions and popular constructions out of the picture, Douglas McCulloh has done something clever and simple. McCulloh merely merged the tradition of 227:. A short documentary about the project reveals the working methodology – four digital shooting stations built into the fair's fine art pavilion; one image of each person is made and a database created with subject's answers to five questions: first name, age, gender, and zip code, and "What makes you unique?" 379:, the project moves beyond traditions of the isolated photographic image. Instead the project emphasizes complexity, multiplicity, extreme volume, and the interplay of image, data, map, and text." McCulloh's Hollywood work has been exhibited in the U.S. and Europe and has become part of the permanent photo 108:

in character, using chance systems to drive large photographic projects. He is clear about the goal: "Chance liberates us from the limitations of our intention", McCulloh writes. "Chance subverts control, allowing art to become an opening into the world's full complexity." "Everybody feels like they

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jet hangar transformed into a giant camera. The 3,505.75 square-foot (325.44 m) photograph was made to mark the end of 165 years of film/chemistry-based photography and the start of the age of digital photography. It was made by The Legacy Group; (Jerry Burchfield, Mark Chamberlain, Jacques

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magazine, Matt Kettman quotes McCulloh on the conceptual underpinning of the work: "The whole trajectory of modern art for the last 100 years has been toward the concept of art as mental construction, and blind photography comes from that place. They're creating that image in their head first —

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about the project. "This is the precise terrain of photography – one side posing, the other looking. Cameras belong on the beach." The photographers set up studio lighting at crowded beaches and "sample the passing parade like scientists who periodically dip water out of a flowing stream." The

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in photography and digital media. McCulloh writes that his "mother is a refugee and my father is a geologist." Because of an upbringing that highlighted both uncontrollable change and deep time, McCulloh states he "has believed since childhood that the world operates mainly by chance."

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resulting photographs are "infinitely less guarded than posed portraits", states arts writer Laura Stewart. "They tell vivid stories about the beach and its people, and about those of us who are given the unusual freedom to stare." Kevin Miller, director of the

49:. "As such, it is grounded in some of the century's most powerful conceptual currents." McCulloh is one of six photographers who in 2006 transformed an F-18 jet hangar into the world's largest camera to make 352:, tied to the almighty dollar and abundant cheap labor, dependent, equally, on self-deception and inextinguishable hope." "For those of us who live on one of California's streets of dreams", writes author 1204: 375:' L.A. Neighborhoods Project. "The result," states photographer and writer Aline Smithson, "is a massive and multi-layered artistic inquiry. Map-driven and infused with data and first-hand 1728: 183:

camera and studio lighting, McCulloh and collaborator Jacques Garnier made photographs on beaches in California and Florida over a seven-year period. "Beaches are half display, half

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of the new economy, a site where issues of race and gender, immigration and exploitation, hopes and dreams animate a classic California landscape. Susan Brenneman, writing in the

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art critic Christopher Knight stated that the "87 works by 11 artists and one collective" are "more akin to Conceptual art than to traditional camera-work." Artists included in

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Garnier, Rob Johnson, Douglas McCulloh, and Clayton Spada). Dimensions of the photograph are 31 feet 7 inches (9.63 meters) high x 111 feet (34 meters) wide.

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that select one random quarter-mile square, according to a book on the project. McCulloh then travels to that quarter-mile square with a single camera and 18mm

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art critic William Wilson. "He selects areas at random, spending a day shooting whatever he finds – beach, slum or riverbed slime. A traveling exhibition of

335: 152:, speaking "with almost everyone he encounters" and making more than 20,000 photographs. "McCulloh's working method avoids pitfalls by adopting the 84: 2036: 1736: 1592: 1530: 1425: 1172: 1100: 1066: 1012: 978: 919: 807: 715: 687: 653: 626: 591: 2046: 2021: 2067: 1092: 1058: 1030: 1004: 876: 799: 679: 499: 209: 165: 1936: 789: 223:

McCulloh and collaborator Ted Fisher led 68 artists, photographers, and volunteers in a project that photographed 20,558 visitors to the

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really elaborate, fully realized visions — and then bringing some version of that vision into the world for the rest of us to see."

1760: 430: 254: 2099: 1243: 1160: 1124: 614: 266: 193: 188: 2056: 1212: 872: 523: 114: 34: 1989: 1702: 235: 2010: 1120: 550:. The exhibition is the first major museum exhibition of blind photographers, states Stacy Davies in ArtSlant. Writing for 140:

is a photographic sampling project controlled by a map gridded into 5,151 quarter-mile squares that encompass all of urban

92: 46: 437:. The exposure was 35 minutes long and development took 5 hours, 70 people and 1,800 gallons (6,814 liters) of 1854: 1269: 278: 262: 145: 417: 56: 1501: 1333: 1885: 1696: 1633: 1474: 434: 258: 25:) is an American photographer notable for conceptual photographic projects based on "systematic randomness" and 1417: 645: 530:

was shown at UCR/California Museum of Photography from May 2 to August 29, 2009, and has since traveled to the

1365: 224: 2094: 2000: 1820: 1156: 760: 610: 368: 200:, originated an exhibition and book on the project. The work has also been shown at museums including the 197: 121:

with the Surrealist approach of creating a system that forces the artist to act at the mercy of chance."

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was in the vanguard of database-driven art projects and has been shown widely, most prominently in the

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The Legacy Project is a 15-year art project focused on a major closed United States military base:

88: 930: 726: 1182: 671: 641: 606: 575: 519: 331: 312:. He then spent hundreds of hours at the place he named "Dream Street", producing 12,891 photos, 274: 141: 30: 1664: 1946: 1881: 920:"Chance Encounters: Photographer Doug McCulloh exposes strange realities in the land of dreams" 813: 716:"Chance Encounters: Photographer Doug McCulloh exposes strange realities in the land of dreams" 539: 445:

has been written about in more than 500 publications, states art writer Liz Goldner, including

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The Edge of Air: Photographs of the Final Days of the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro

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The Edge of Air: Photographs of the Final Days of the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro

394: 63:, the first major museum exhibition of work by blind photographers. McCulloh, under the 2076: 447: 349: 269:

Surveys (1976–1981). Legacy Project work has been shown in many exhibitions, including

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photoquotations.com ⁄ world's largest photo quotation resource

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Chance Encounters: The L.A. Project – Sightings of the Marvelous and Extraordinary

1389: 1909: 1732: 1128: 543: 372: 290: 239: 22: 42: 1761:"The Great Picture: The World's Largest Photo and the World's Largest Camera" 1537:, November 13, 2010, Track B, 11am-12:30pm, Douglas McCulloh. Archived from 842: 376: 184: 68: 1304: 873:"Sight Unseen: International Photography by Blind Artists – Introduction" 463: 330:

of notes, maps and e-mails" and ultimately a book. The 134-home, 40-acre

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is 3.47:1. The photograph is of the control tower and runways at the

1878:"La Mirada Invisible: Colectiva Internacional de Fotógrafos Ciegos" 393: 1821:"Review: 'Sight Unseen' at UCR/California Museum of Photography" 1596: 153: 1205:"On the Beach: Exhibit looks through the lens at surf culture" 67:"Quoteman", has also collected and posted online thousands of 1977: 1971: 1665:"Douglas McCulloh: Four Evenings with Fine Art Photographers" 902: 522:, Bruce Hall, Annie Hesse, Rosita McKenzie, Gerardo Nigenda, 1692:"World's Largest Photo taken in Defunct El Toro Base Hangar" 1270:"Ocean View: The Depiction of Southern California Lifestyle" 1244:"Ocean View: The Depiction of Southern California Lifestyle" 144:. McCulloh begins each day of photography by pulling chance 1729:"Guinness Certifies World's Largest Photograph and Camera" 1632:. Lasting Images: Newsletter of the Photo Friends of the 1093: