The administration building of 1939's Golden Gate Exposition still stands. It later served as part of a Naval Base, which closed in 1993. I wanted to express the vast scale of the room, so waited until my friend and fellow pbase photographer Tim May wandered into an illuminated alcove leading to a stair well. Tim was not posing for me – he did not even know that I was making this image. He is small, and the room is vast, creating a strong sense of scale incongruity. There is also a bold contrast between the brightly illuminated alcove and the dark rotunda, which is lined with military murals from its days as a naval base. Because I used my spot meter to expose for the highlights around Tim, the rest of the scene gets darker and richer.