"Cities are the most interesting things that humans build," said Julie Melton. Permanent cities are heavily constrained, however, by practical considerations. Buildings need to be inexpensive and durable. Property is expensive and only the rich can have a lot of it in central areas. At Burning Man, on the other hand, about 70,000 people come together and build a temporary city in the desert. People and groups without money can occupy a large amount of prime real estate. Because it is all temporary, the aesthetics of whatever is built can be decoupled from the traditional goal of durability. Freed from traditional constraints, therefore, "Black Rock City" becomes an explosion of creativity. (See the Wikipedia page and the official site for more background.)
See "Burning Man for Turboprop Pilots" for my tips on flying yourself into the event.
The logistical challenges of getting to Burning Man and setting up camp mean that it is disproportionately people from the San Francisco Bay area, the nearest megalopolis.
The most critical use of photography at Burning Man 2014 was for the Temple of Grace: "The Temple of Grace is intended to be a spiritual and sacred space for memorials, reflection, celebration, and to commemorate life transitions. It is the latest in a long line of temples going back to 2000, which started the tradition of the temple built as a spiritual center for this art festival. It is a special work of art given to the community, and is a spiritual refuge where thousands gather, each to engage with it in his or her own way. The community comes to write their memorials and place tokens of their transitions, and it is burned at the end of the festival in a tradition of releasing them by the immolation of the temple."
The temple was approximately 80x80' in footprint and 70' high, featuring intricately cut wooden panels. People primarily used the temple to remember loved ones who had died and photography was absolutely critical to these personal memorials.
See my 2014 photographs of the temple and the photography-rich memorials within.
Burners also sometimes used photography in their camps, e.g., at a fake Black Rock City Museum of Transportation History.
Given the importance of after-sunset displays of art, a backlit display of transparencies would have worked well, but I didn't see anyone using those.
Q. What is the policy on taking pictures?
A. All individuals wishing to shoot still or motion pictures at Burning Man and distribute that imagery publicly, regardless of commercial intent, are required to have their projects reviewed and approved prior to coming to Black Rock City, sign a professional use contract in accordance with Burning Man.s media policies, and have their cameras tagged at Media Mecca, Burning Man.s on site press room. These steps are designed to protect the privacy of participants and artists alike. If you are considering filming or videotaping for professional purposes, or if you wish to share your images beyond friends and family, regardless of your intent to make money from your images, you MUST have a commercial agreement on file with the Media Team prior to your arrival onsite. Commercial use of images taken at Burning Man without permission is subject to cunning legal action. This includes amateurs and professionals who capture images
I ended up getting a media badge for my cameras but there really isn't anyone to check these and I saw a lot of people using heavy-duty digital single-lens reflex camera systems with no badges. Perhaps if they had published a web site devoted to drug use and nudity at Burning Man they would have found themselves asked to take down the images but generally speaking the organization does not seem to have the energy to pursue everyone with a mobile phone who pushes a video up to YouTube or a photograph to Flickr. Certainly the use of smartphone cameras was universal at Burning Man, though the lack of mobile data or other Internet coverage means that people are not Facebooking in real time.
As far as on-the-ground etiquette is concerned, all that you really have to do is remember that Black Rock City is a city like any other. There are some public spaces and events where people generally expect photos to be taken and there are private spaces, such as camps, and events, such as meals, where people don't expect photos to be taken. Before taking an individual portrait, if you would ask permission first in New York or Los Angeles then you would also ask permission in Black Rock City.
Have you reached the age that this doesn't sound like much fun? If so, this article is for you.
, Sony RX100, and Nikon Digital SLRs.
The daytime images linked from this article were taken primarily with
a Sony a6000 mirrorless camera (APS-C-sized sensor) and the kit zoom
lens.
For nighttime photography at Burning, as elsewhere, the challenge is
that it is dark, except those portions of the frame that include a
flame or a light bulb, which are very bright. Generally the larger the
sensor the better the low-light performance, which means that a
full-frame digital SLR is a good starting point. To avoid being forced
to use a tripod or a very high ISO, which results in a lot of noise
(like grain in the bad old film days), mount a large-aperture prime
lens to the digital SLR. Examples of such a lens include a 50/1.8, a
50/1.4, a 35/1.4, or an 85/1.8 (for portraits). I used a Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM lens
Make sure to bring a
sensor cleaning kit
You can try to protect your camera and lens against the blowing dust by using various capes and hoods. I think it is more practical to (1) limit lens changes to indoor locations, such as the interior of an RV, and (2) expect that you may have to send the gear off for a professional cleaning afterwards. Cameras are tools and photojournalism means that the tools will suffer some wear. A newspaper photographer's Nikon or Canon system will generally have a beat-up appearance. Note that conventional professional DSLRs, such as Nikon and Canon bodies costing $2000+, are very well sealed against dust and rain. High-end lenses, such as the Canon L series, also typically have rubber dust-and-water seals.
I didn't have any problems at all with my Canon/Sigma system. The Sony
periodically suffered from dust on the sensor that I was able to clean
off with a blower
I think a reasonable way for a rich person to show a child Burning Man would be to fly into the airport just after sunrise on one day, pick up pre-arranged rental bikes, poke around the camps and the playa, show the child the performances and art cars that roam the playa at night, try to sleep for a few hours, then get up at sunrise to see a little more sightseeing before departing from the airport at noon so as to avoid the heat of the afternoon. A child would get a good feel for the spectacle without being bored out of his or her wits by driving three hours from Reno, waiting in line for hours to get in, waiting in line for hours to get out, etc.
See: the 2014 photos and some of the 2015 photos.
Asked to explain the "ten principles," Harvey said that the "spirit of gifting is the most significant part of Burning Man." Certainly the character of the gathering is completely different from Glastonbury, in which everything is for sale. Harvey said that his inspiration as a family picnic: "If a family is reasonably functional the members don't sell things to one another. That's certainly true for a parent, who is always giving things to a child." (My trip to Burning Man came right in the middle of a project in which I was part of a team interviewing divorce litigators in 50 U.S. states. Harvey's comments dovetailed with what the litigators had said about how making a profit from child support. According to their lawyers, successful child support plaintiffs over time behaved less and less like ordinary parents.)
What are the Ten Principles?
More: some of the special lingo that Burners use.
Around the corner from our camp was Caravansicle, a camp in which each bedroom was a cube made of sturdy 4x4 posts. The camper was cocooned in a canvas room within the cube, resting on hotel-grade mattress and linens while cooled by a portable air conditioner. They had a dining room with an organic menu, a geodesic bar with a snacks menu, and standard sectional sofas strewn about for conversation. (Due to the prevailing dust it was hard to imagine that these sofas could be used for any other purpose.) Caravansicle also built a public stage and dance area. My companion casually referred to Caravansicle as "Camp Super-Douche". Were we envious of their lifestyle? Yes. Were they excluding the rabble? No. Anyone could walk into their camp, sit down in the bar, get a drink, and stay as long as he or she liked. They didn't seem likely to invite us to stay for dinner but we wouldn't call a neighbor who invited us onto his porch but not into the dining room unfriendly. And the Caravansicle folks ran the public stage for all to enjoy.
We did see a few camps where big trailers were circled to the point that one couldn't see in. They provided nothing to burners who weren't staying in their camp. They did degrade Burning Man by diluting it. For whatever time you spent walking or biking next to their camp your visual system would be bored.
There are a variety of people who somehow get "vendor passes" and make money either by supplying the festival itself with outhouses, ice, or fresh water, or by being there to cater to folks who rent RVs or are staying in luxury camps.
How about the cash value of a pregnancy that was established at Burning Man? The divorce litigators that I interviewed (for a different project) before and after the event Burning Man agreed that the home states of the father and mother were critical. "The mom needs to get out from under Nevada jurisdiction," one lawyer noted, "because child support there is capped at about $13,000 per year." (i.e., only $4,000 per year more than the USDA-estimated actual cost of a child) Small differences in geography would lead to large differences in profits. A high-income father from Superior, Wisconsin would yield 17 percent of his gross income, e.g., a tax-free $85,000 per year if he were a $500,000-per-year medical specialist. Had that father chosen to reside 1.5 miles across the bridge into Duluth, Minnesota, child support would be capped at $24,000 per year. Over 18 years, this is the difference between collecting $1.53 million and $432,000.
Was there no way to earn a profit from a Burning Man pregnancy if the father lived most of the year in a state with capped child support? "Where there is a will there is a way," said a lawyer. "The mother would have to move to a state with unlimited child support, such as California or Massachusetts, give birth in that state, and then use the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act's factors for obtaining jurisdiction over the father." Here are the factors:
How does it work with non-U.S. citizens? Massachusetts litigator Jerry Nissenbaum explained how it can work when a foreigner is visiting Massachusetts: "She'll go back [to her home country]; stay a year or so to bond with the child and not let dad bond (she doesn't want to get stuck here); come back with baby, file complaint; get a $40,000 per year order [top of the Massachusetts guidelines but courts can and do award much more, all of which is tax-free to the recipient] and then the Massachusetts Department of Revenue will collect and send it to her US-based bank account that she can use with a debit card at home, or wherever she is in the world." The same approach should work if the foreigner visits Burning Man and gets pregnant as a result of a one-night encounter with a man from Massachusetts. If the father happened to be from some other state, the foreign mother would simply use the courts and agencies of that other state (but, as noted above, Nevada and other states where child support is capped would limit the profits).
Some litigators pointed out that a quicker option might be to sell an abortion. The typical rate for an abortion Massachusetts, for example, is about $250,000 (see the "Women in Science" article for more on how this works).
The most obvious way to make money at Burning Man is by selling tickets... to Burning Man. But in 2014 the founders converted their LLC into a non-profit organization and won't be able to take out millions of dollars in profits for themselves.
She responded that for her Burning Man reminded her to stop spending such a large percentage of her life doing things out of obligation. "I need to take time to create," she said. Being in the environment of Burning Man makes one more likely to say "I am going to take a substantial amount of time off for self-expression."
See this September 2015 weblog posting about attitudes toward marriage and children, conversations that I wouldn't have had without being part of a camp.
The biggest RV rental outfits have a big footprint at Burning Man. We saw a ton of El Monte RVs and they will pre-position the RV at Burning Man, fully stocked with food and bicycles. You could therefore skip all of the lines to get in and out of Burning Man by taking the Burner Express bus from Reno or San Francisco or by flying into the Burning Man airport.
We rented someone else's 31' Class C RV from sharemycoach.com, a sort of AirBnB for RVs. They drove it from California to the Grand Sierra Resort casino's campground right next to the Reno airport. They waited for a delivery order from Safeway that we had placed and put everything inside the RV or the fridge as appropriate. They had guys inside Burning Man ready to fix problems, e.g., when we had six failures on four of the bikes that they included with our rental they were there to swap them out (unfortunately, unlike the Playa Bike Repair folks, they didn't have any bikes sized to fit someone 6' tall (my height)), or when our CO detector was sounding any time that we turned on the generator (it had expired years earlier, according to the prominent label on the exterior). The quirkiest thing about doing business with Sharemycoach.com is that they maintain that the driver they select hire and supervise actually works for the renter and the renter is responsible for any accidents that he gets into. We returned our RV without any damage in Reno. The Sharemycoach.com folks later told us that the driver they'd hired, who technically worked for us, had some sort of accident on the way back to the Los Angeles area. Therefore we would be responsible for up to $2500 in damage, after which insurance would kick in. Eventually they agreed to waive this additional fee and accept the $8000 or so that we'd paid as full payment.
Whatever you do it won't be cheap. All of the RV companies charge higher rates during Burning Man and we didn't hear of anyone who spent less than $6000. If you live in the Reno area this would definitely be a good lifestyle business. An RV that is worth about $20,000 can easily be rented for $6000 per week during Burning Man.
The camps arrange for fresh water delivery and gray water pump-out every day or two. You can do that too but it must be done in advance. Four of us managed to take very quick showers every other day in an RV with about an 80-gallon fresh water tank. The limiting factor was gray water capacity as we had not arranged a pump-out.
If you don't desperately need afternoon air conditioning you can save yourself a lot of money, and still get regular showers, by just joining a camp (typical fees for a camp being hundreds of dollars per person, as opposed to the thousands that an RV will cost).