Jerry Burchfield

Mark Chamberlain, left, and Jerry Burchfield in 1987 with junk they collected on Laguna Canyon Road. From 1973 to 1987, they owned BC Space Gallery in Laguna Beach. (Rod Boren / for The Times)

Sept. 16, 2014 10:45 AM PT

For the Legacy Project, which documented the transition of the old El Toro Marine Corps Air Station into a park, Burchfield and five other artists created what is believed to be the world’s largest functioning pinhole camera obscura and the world’s largest photograph. At the unveiling of the 3,505-square-foot photo on July 12, 2006, the artists -- Clayton Spada, Robert Johnson, Jacques Garnier, Burchfield, Douglas McCulloh and Mark Chamberlain -- stand in front of it in the El Toro aircraft hanger that was the pinhole camera. (Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times)

Robert Johnson, Jacques Garnier and Douglas McCulloh talk in front of a 10-foot-wide reproduction of the 3,505-square-foot photo. (Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times)