As I headed into Burning Man back in 2017 I stopped not far from the camp to take a moment for myself. Things were starting to build in the distance but here it was just me, the dust and the wind as the early evening light rested on the distant hills.
I don’t remember what I was on when I took this photo but it definitely benefited from the higher perspective. I’m sure the rays were still cool to the people on the ground, but I think I probably got a bit more oomph overall. 🙂
It seems weird to think that at a gathering of 80,000 people you can find some time alone but at Burning Man anything is possible. Take this guy for example… just him and miles of desert. And me. But I swiftly exited into the dust like I was never there…
Still the height of summer here in NZ, so what better reason to look back to a nice cool winter shot…
I was thinking earlier, as it rained, that it had been a super long time since the last storm here. Queenstown is DRY at the moment and then the humidity kicked in after the showers earlier. Quite the number of seasons all in one short time which hopefully will make for a good sunset later! Here’s one of the few weather types we didn’t get today…
I’ve recently updated my entire Burning Man portfolio over at Smugmug, so be sure to go have a look. Now there are more than eight years of Burning Man photos in there for ya!
I can’t believe there aren’t even more injuries at Burning Man every year. People get up and do the most athletic-looking maneuvers in the most sketchy situations. This is one of Laura Kimpton’s pieces. She puts new letters out there every year that say one thing or another… they’re always a magnet for this kind of jumpy action.
BULLETIN: I have a few Burning Man pieces going up at an auction soon to raise money for other artists. 100% of the money goes to Burning Man artists (not me, even though I am technically a Burning Man artist). You can attend the event in San Francisco via the Artumnal Gathering website. Remote bidding is available too, so you can take part in the auction here.
This was year number eight in a row for me, but every year feels like the first. This was a very cruizey year for me. No problems… smooth as silk all around, which is something I never really expect. Rene and Jonatas were two awesome roommates with great energy the whole time. I swear to god we have never laughed so much in our lives!
Also, I had many personal revelations and artistic breakthroughs. It sounds a bit too solipsistic to describe these in detail, but, they were amazing! I’m already a high-energy positive guy, but the event really takes me to the next level. And everything I see inspires me for the other 51 weeks a year. I’m so humbled by all the incredible art and all the awesome people out there.
I took over 8,000 photos this year and wanted to share my favorite 30! Feel free to share with friends and loved ones. We had another great photo walk and over 280 signed up for the Facebook event. But only half were able to stumble out there after doing god-knows-what. But it was still an amazing event that even included a proposal while thousands of photos were being taken!
Anyway, if you like what you see, you can see my Burning Man Album of favorites for the last 8 years.
Or you can see 200+ more photos from Burning Man 2018.
If you or your art is in any of the photos, feel free to email [email protected] for the full-sized file. 🙂 I do not currently sell prints for Burning Man, but there are other options over at TreyRatcliff.com.
Enjoy!
Well, maybe you are getting tired of these by now? Here’s another set along with captions.
The tree in the middle of the desert glowed all day and all night. One evening, there was a 70-piece orchestra here and a ballet where they performed The Rites of Spring. It’s the first time I ever heard of a production like that at Burning Man.
Quick visit to this secret camp!
This is one of my favorite random photos. It’s one of those quick 3-second stories from Burning Man. We were biking in separate directions. He was heading home to Glamcocks (which I can only assume is an alternative-camp). About 25 meters from me, in a gust of wind, his hat went inside out and so did his umbrella. I whipped out my camera to take a picture and he stuck a playful tongue out at me.
That’s one of my favorite art pieces from Burning Man in the back ground… I have photos of that coming soon. I was here at the end of the Billion Bunny March, and this lively couple was really living it up out front… posing and enjoying the moment.
Here’s another photo taken with my trusty little FUJI XT-2. I’m going to update the review on my blog to add in all the favorite photos I just took with it. But, I can attest that this camera is just as rugged and weather-proof as people say. I never had a single problem with it!
In the middle of the day, I rode off into the deep desert and saw someone else trying to be alone.
How amazing is this mask? I saw this gentleman up on the 2nd floor around the man. Great job burner, great job. Kudos!
A plane crash in the desert? No… just more fun random scatterings of art around the white sands. I WAS almost in a plane crash here one year in an experimental hand-made plane. Right after we landed, a huge gust of wind came and blew us off the runway. Whoa that was exciting… seeing this brought back those heart-stopping memories!
And here we go again! Here’s a link to all the Burning Man posts here on the blog. Enjoy!
It was her first Burning Man and I told her she looked like a pro! I’m not sure her name… I got the contact info for her and her boyfriend, but I bet someone on the internet knows who she is.
Check out this fun new art car! There are over 100 art cars out there… some big, some tiny, and some extra-tiny like this. Even better, this one takes photos! I meant to go for a ride in it, but I never saw it again
Carla and Kristyna, BFF. This is basically just like me and Rene, but we don’t hug like this in camp. Well, guys kinda hug when they first see one another, and then a 2nd hug a week later when they part. So, well, it’s not like us at all. It’s like us if we were girls, I guess. Okay, the more I talk about it, it’s actually a really bad analogy. Anyway, this is Carla and Kristyna. They’re super-friendly.
A surprising, gnarly sand-twister came over the desert one day. I chased it for about three minutes. I know it sounds crazy, but they are actually fun get close too because the wind whips your bike around and you don’t have to pedal… just kind of hang on for the ride with one hand, the other one taking photos!
There weren’t as many sandstorms this year as most years, but it was one of the hottest in the past five. It gets depressingly hot if you just sit around the camp, so the best idea is to jump on your bike and let the afternoon winds cool you off. I did this almost every day, and found other random people doing the same sort of thing. Your camp/RV/tent can be kind of a vortex, so it’s good to get out, ride your bike, and roll around to see what you can find.
A wonderful Israeli couple had just finished an acro-yoga performance for me. They were amazing and I got some great photos that I still haven’t processed. After they finished, they embraced. This was somewhere around 8:30 and E (that’s how addresses work in Black Rock City… time + letter).
Hey it’s week #3, time for a new batch of cookies!
What is a “Decompression”? That’s challenging to describe to people that haven’t spent over a week in an environment like this. It’s not just the heat and survival-factor; it’s also a bit of a mind-shift. I think many people have experienced this in different ways, and it doesn’t need just Burning Man. It’s maybe similar to coming back for a week on an island getaway and getting back into the “real world.”
After you are at Burning Man for a few days, your mind kind of slips away into another state of being. I’m not sure how to describe it. And no, it doesn’t have anything to do with the drugs or anything. It’s more about being around 70,000 other artists and creatives that, by default, accept you and are non-judgmental. (Maybe this is where it differs from an island vacation where bronzed pool-boys are serving you margaritas.)
Basically, Burning Man is very egalitarian, where all are equal and everyone is giving one another gifts all the time. Random people. And back too that non-judgmental thing. It’s perhaps one of most comforting places in the world, from that perspective. You don’t even notice yourself falling into this sort of peaceful state. Imagine, living in a world where no one cared what the heck you did, what your real-life job was, and everyone, even random people, always had a hug at the ready. I mean, who WOULDN’T want to live in a world like that?
And then, immediately after leaving, you get back into the other world… back at the Reno airport were people are upset, stressed, complaining. You post stuff on the internet and then people find something to complain about, something that doesn’t fit with their particular world-view, and they need to let you know about it. Blah blah blah I could give countless examples, you get it. So then, the challenge is how to take all this open-heartedness back with you to the real world and not be beaten down. It kind of reminds me of what we do to kids. They are so open, free, and creative, and society just kinda slowly beats it out of them over time. Children at least have 16+ years to decompress, all of us leaving the desert only have a few days!
It was especially hard for me because I had to fly to Florida (INTO THE HURRICANE) to make 48 hours worth of training videos with KelbyOne. Then creating a ton of Aurora HDR 2018 training videos for Windows and Mac before launch. I powered through it, on sheer will, but I never really had the chance to re-integrate. Wow I don’t even know if I did a decent job explaining anything there, but at least a few meandering thoughts for you. Oh, forget about all that, how about some photos?!?
