‘Everything is harder without Jerry’

Jerry Burchfield, who partnered with Mark Chamberlain to create the art installation known as The Tell, which is considered to be instrumental in the preservation of a large part of Laguna’s open space, died Sept. 11. He was 62.

“He died just after sunrise,” Chamberlain said. “He was all about light. Photography means light writing.

“Jerry was prepared to die — he was always organized — and he did it with grace and dignity.”

Barbara Burchfield was at the bedside of her husband of 41 years when he died after a long struggle with colon cancer. The Burchfields have one child, Brian, 24.

Burchfield was Chamberlain’s partner at BC Space Gallery on Forest Avenue from 1973 to 1987, a pioneering alternative gallery space dedicated to showing non-conformist contemporary photography.

Cal State Fullerton’s Grand Central Art Center is mounting an exhibition recognizing the influence of the gallery on the Southern California art community.

The retrospective is scheduled to run at the Santa Ana center from February through April 2010, with an accompanying book.

Since 1987, Burchfield was a professor of photography and photography gallery director at Cypress College, but he and Chamberlain continued to collaborate on the Laguna Canyon Project, of which The Tell was a part, and The Legacy Project, which records the transition of El Toro Marine Air Base to the Great Park.

Burchfield is described on his website as artist, curator, author and educator.

In his own words:

“My medium is light and photography is my primary tool of expression. Known as a conceptually oriented artist/activist, my work is environment responsive and about change, natural process, interaction, physical connections, and evolves through what I call ‘orchestrated chance.’

“I use traditional and alternative applications of photography, light painting, performance, video, evolving installations, extended documentations, and dedicate myself to long-term projects in an ongoing effort to make work that documents change over time, creates an awareness of natural beauty, and addresses humanities teetering relationship with nature.”

Burchfield’s work has received numerous awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and has been exhibited throughout the United States, Europe and Japan.

In April 2004, he was the featured artist for Arts OC’s fifth annual Arts Awards. He is the author of several books and catalogues on photography and had recently co-founded the Laguna Wilderness Press.

2006 was a big year for Burchfield. He received an Art in Public Places Award from the Architecture Foundation of Orange County and the AIA, a Lifetime Achievement Award from Artists for a Better World, and was the Honored Educator at the Western Regional Conference of the Society for Photographic Education.

That same summer The Legacy Project produced the “Great Picture,” which resulted in the world’s largest functioning pinhole camera obscura and the world’s largest photograph. Recent books by Burchfield include “Habitat” published by the Laguna Art Museum; and “In Transition — El Toro: A Photographic Essay from Past to Present,” published by the Great Park Conservancy, Tustin, California.

“Primal Images: 100 Lumen Prints of Amazonia Flora,” a book on Burchfield’s work in the Amazon rain forests of Brazil, was released in the fall of 2004. His newest book, “The Edge of Air,” featuring work by the Legacy Project and edited by Burchfield was released in June 2005.

The Tell

Burchfield is perhaps best remembered in Laguna for his collaboration with Chamberlain on The Tell — a monumental tribute to the natural beauty and history of Laguna Canyon, which was slated for development in the late 1980s.

Two years in the planning, The Tell was 636 feet long, 34 feet at its highest point, an undulating silhouette in wood, words and photographs that echoed the hills that shelter the canyon.

“Tell” is an archaeological term for an unnatural mound of artifacts and evidence of prior civilization.

A picture of Burchfield and Chamberlain is exhibited at the Nix Nature Center at Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, honoring their contribution to the preservation of a large chunk of the canyon.

The Tell was Phase Eight of the Laguna Project, of which Phase 15 was completed this year. Chamberlain will begin the 16th phase next year. It will be difficult. The two photographers have worked together since the late 1960s.

“Everything is harder without Jerry,” Chamberlain said. “He was an extraordinary catalyst. Everyone wanted to do whatever he was doing.

“Jerry was 21 when I first met him and I wasn’t much older. We were just a couple of kids with big ideas.”

A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Oct. 4 at Laguna Presbyterian Church. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Photographic Arts Program so dear to Burchfield’s heart, through the Cypress College Foundation.

A reception will follow the service from 3 to 6 p.m. at BC Space Gallery, 235 Forest Ave., Laguna Beach.