Burning Man 2015

The Burning Man event is located once a year at the extreme and temporal Black Rock City, Nevada. During one single week 70,000 people from around the planet, found a thriving, living, breathing city on a deserted dried lake-bed, at high altitude, under extreme weather conditions, with "leave no trace" ethics and literally thousands of tons of artworks.

The Temple under construction

This year the artists with early passes were working on their installs in raging dust storms and winds up to 60 miles an hour. The conditions were relentless and extremely difficult, their projects and installs were all running behind schedule and the event kicked off with many projects still semi built on the playa, some were still in their packing crates. Not only are the artists installing and constructing giant structures they must also be able to withstand up to 100 mile an hour winds and not collapse on people. It is a huge undertaking and one done mostly for the love of art and creation.

The event this year was one of extreme physical endurance due to almost continual 4 hour long dust storms, where all sense of orientation is lost and goggles and dust masks must be worn continuously. My main concern was to maintain cameras and computer in order to work on my panoramic portrait project. Although the art works were phenomenal and outstanding as usual, the dust storms made it difficult to see, let alone find much of the art on the massive open playa. This however is what Burning Man is all about … One of their 10 principles includes “radical self reliance” as a concept of primary importance. The area is not easy, at about 6000 feet above sea-level, scorching desert during the day and freezing during the night, you must bring in all your own water, food, camping gear and lots of rebar for lashing down shade structures etc. Every thing you bring in must be taken out as well…there are no rubbish bins, no shops, no souvenirs, and the only thing you can buy is ice, at Arctica and coffee and lemonade at Center Camp.

Frances from RogueNV at Burning Man. Photo by Jack Deming

Incredible structures are conceived, designed and built in warehouses and studios and garages across America and even internationally.

"Temple of Mazu"

One of the key pieces this year was The Temple of Mazu, a project designed by “Kiwi” Chris Hankins, project managed by Nathan Parker and constructed in The Generator workspace in Reno. Hundreds of people volunteered to help the core group bring this project to fruition. The temple was constructed of wood with a giant lotus flower on the roof. Surrounding the lotus flower sat writhing metal dragons that breathed fire at night. Little wooden walkways with hanging lanterns ran from the main structure, in the manner of rickety Asian water bridges, and at night reflections of water in pink and blue were projected on the dust below giving the impression of cool calming rippling water below your feet. This whole structure was built with the knowledge that it would be burnt on the Thursday of the event. What always amazes me is that a real atmosphere of spirituality and calm can be generated so quickly at this event. A Japanese Buddhist monk asked if he could do some ceremonial blessings during one of the nights prior to the burn, circled by people watching he burnt incense and chanted.

"Papillon" by the Trinity Group

One of the installations that resonated with me was a smaller one called “Papillon” by the Trinity Group. It was a small old fashioned metal swing-set with a latticework of butterflies made from mirror pieces and mosaic glass with metal links. The pieces were suspended and light, fragile but strong enough to withstand the brutal elements at Black Rock City. Trinity Group are from the Bay area and create a piece every year. While being mainly see-through, the little pieces of mirror mean that you were looking at a mosaic of what is behind you as well as looking into the distance. Seeing backwards and forwards has always intrigued me as a photographer and storyteller.

Every year a main temple is built, where “Burners” remember their loved ones, place mementos of those who have died all over the walls, meditate, sing, play music or even just sleep. This year the structure was made in the form of a giant sound shell, winding around was a passage through the shell to arrive at a sculpture garden in the center. By the last day the temple is always alive with energy and prayers and wishes, it has become a focus for so many people’s personal spirituality while not belonging to any religion. On the Sunday the temple is full of photographs, poems, messages written on walls, dead people’s shoes and memories, and is burnt as the event draws to a close.

Burning Man is a huge notorious Art event with a fundamental ethic of acceptance for all the diversity of human nature, creativity and ways of being. “Radical Self Expression” is another of the 10 principles. This event gives the opportunity for all participants to do just that, to whatever level they want as long as it doesn’t hurt others.

Jack and Josephine

All photography by Frances Melhop unless otherwise credited.

Photograph by long time "Burner" George Post

Photograph by long time "Burner" George Post

Temporary city

Burning Man is a temporary city of approx 70,000 people created every late August on the arid "Playa" of the Black Rock Desert of northern Nevada. It's re-built with grid precision annually on an alkaline prehistoric lake bed. The city is completely vaporized without a trace when the event is over.

It's considered the hardest to get to event in North America. Ticket prices are prohibitive often $350-$800 each (cheaper if you're poor) and sell out instantly months before. The after-market ticket price soar far beyond, but the organization will void any tickets they catch at gouging prices. There is an ethic to gift tickets or re-sell at face value. The ticket and car passes get you absolutely nothing but entry into the hard packed dust perimeter. It's heavily patrolled by state and federal law enforcement.

It's said that describing Burning Man to someone who hasn't gone is like describing color to a blind man.  It has become a global cultural phenomenon that is being copied with other "Burns" from Australia to Africa. I ran into Brits stocking up their rental RV at a Reno grocery who said it's like a pilgrimage for them.  What started in 1986 as a small SF beach event to burn a wooden man has morphed into a monstrous Dada Brigadoon.

There is no commerce at Burning Man. No bands. No advertising. No promoting. No money. No garbage collection, virtually nothing can be bought. It's not a festival nor concert. Everyone must pack in and pack out what they need to survive. Normal vehicles can not be used once in. Instead an impossible collection of "Art Cars and Mutant Vehicles" sail across the desert amidst tens of thousands of bicycles. There is no trash or waste blowing about -- it's all very pristine generally (minus the Sani-Huts). Cars are searched at entry for prohibited items. Most at event are rigorously Eco to leave no trace. Even dirty water is taken out and not poured on the Playa. There are 10 Principals to be followed.

Burning Man has become a Byzantine ragù of Blade Runner, Mad Max, Hieronymus Bosch, National Geographic, the Phantom Tollbooth, High Plains Drifter, Lawrence of Arabia, Purim, Medieval, Victorian, Shinto and Wicker Man. It's like really camping on a moon of Star Wars. It's real and unscripted and sometimes fatal. Soaring Temples and boulevards and impossible art installations and events in sometimes choking dust storms. The holy and profane mix. From the nude to the elegantly top-hatted on rambling contraptions or pirate ships.

Past month I measured over 50 miles of dead stopped traffic trying to get in. The Black Rock City "BRC" created is approximately the size of downtown San Francisco. At night it's a bewildering and often scary throbbing neon Tokyo underwater on acid. Flame throwers and lasers and nightmarish blinking machines pierce the harsh black cold night from horizon to horizon. My first time, I was lost in near panic by 4 a.m in a freezing desert in a swim suit and rusty bike. But Burning Man promotes and teaches radical self reliance.

The cream of the cream of Silicon Valley execs and Hollywood get themselves there and mix anonymously with doctors, architects, old hippies, artists, dancers, clerks, fashion designers, royals, models, housewives, monks, CEOs, artists, roofers, stock brokers, Parisians, detectives, college students, infants all living in tents and trailers and most offering open doors to hospitality. Norwegians, Brits, Israelis, Dutch, South Americans, Polynesians, Brooklynites, Japanese all swarm in the dust in their keffiyehs and goggles.

Free bars and bicycle fixing camps are set up. There is unconditional generosity. A stranger might hand you a freezing Popsicle in the hot desert or spritz your parched back with a mister, or hand you a frozen bag of steak or bottle of whisky or handmade jewelry and disappear. Keep a metal cup with you, as there are no disposable ones at that draft beer bar they corralled you into.   A thick book of the 10 days of events is handed out for those that actually have time in the chaos to read it.

Reno is about 120 miles south of the event. The tribes gather there every late Summer from around the world to stock up their 80 gallons of water and dry ice and petrol cans and spare bike chains and crates of alcohol and sunscreen and top ramen to make the ascent. I call it base camp and am a resource for any Cambridge alumni brave, curious, or dumb enough to go.

J D Deming

Reno, Nevãda

photography by Frances Melhop