Burning Man 2011

Ethel and I journeyed out to Burning Man this year with her mom in tow.  Fresh off the plane from Ireland on her first visit to the US, Jane was ready to jump head first into a week in the dust surrounded by the freaks.  Or whatever people around the world think about Burning Man.

What you're really here for is some photos, so I'll keep the stories to a minimum and only say that I made a decision this year to spend more time photographing people.  In the end, it was equal parts interesting people and art at nighttime; I wasn't too excited for photoing daytime art this year, for whatever reason.  As such, let's start with some people.


Murphy in dust-protecto mode


That's for real


Happy couple

Martini Village, with which I've now camped for 7 years running, threw four pretty fantastic theme parties.  It's an awesome bunch of people and they do know how to have a good time!


Martini Villager with amazing hat


Party-goer after having an inch-long gash in her forehead glued back together


September Nevada sunset

The playa was positively hopping at night; more so than I remember over the last few burns.  Lights and fire and lasers everywhere!  This year was substantially colder at night than I can ever remember, so cruising around in the unpopulated parts of the playa wasn't as enjoyable as it would have been otherwise.


Ooooh, light and designs and stuff


Avatar-ish tree; climbing people for scale


El Pulpo Mecanico


On the right; oodles of facts about the Milky Way.  On the left; crazy zooming stars



Singing Tesla Coils (too dark to be visible here) make lightning and music; incredible!

I have a theory that the size and quality of the art at Burning Man is a good barometer for the economy.  After a few decidedly off years for art, it seems to have made a resurgence.  Fingers crossed that this trend continues.  Moving on to a few more people...


Bumblebee wings vs Phoenix wings


One-man show


Dancing the evening away


Performance artist

We had a great spot to watch the Man burn; second row in a designated Sit or Be Screamed At section.  This also ensured great views of the fire performances ahead of time.  Also, you've all seen photos of the Man on fire, so we'll just skip that.


Pre-burn festivities


One of many unique performances

We spent the remainder of Saturday night cruising around and taking in the sights before snagging a couple hours of sleep and then heading back out for sunrise.


The magnificent Temple at night


Abstract view of the super-trippy Tunnel of Enchantment (I think)


Sunrise from the perimeter fence

Sunday was Ethel's birthday, which we observed with a massive AM Bloody Mary party, a nap, and a trip out onto the playa for some fun evening photos.


Totally hopeless at timing the jump


Murphy acts all primal

The Temple was off the hook this year.  Utterly massive, it dominated the landscape from any position.  As expected, it was a burn with a quiet intensity that's hard to describe.  Far hotter and with none of the whiz-bang of the Man burn, the atmosphere created by 40,000 dead-silent people is a special experience not to be missed.


The Temple is "fully involved," in fire-speak


Rapt attention for the Temple


A quiet moment

Unfortunately, the word is out that the Temple burn shouldn't be missed, so our Exodus on Monday was orders of magnitude more painful than it's ever been before.  After two solid afternoons of cleaning and sorting everything in sight, life has returned to normal save for our memories and mementos of a fantastic year on the playa.

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