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California's Gap fire, raging in the hills above Goleta and Santa Barbara, has taken top priority among several hundred wild fires now burning across the state. In just a few days, the blaze has consumed over 8,000 acres and cut a swath several miles wide. These images capture something of the awesome force of the blaze on its third day as powerful "sundowner" winds forced the flames down the mountains and spewed thick smoke and ash into the skies above Santa Barbara. Over the past two decades, the Burning Man festival has grown to become one of the world's hippest and most mind-blowing gatherings. Not quite an art festival, not quite a desert rave, not quite a social experiment, but something of all three. The event is a week-long celebration of free-form creativity and radical self-expression held each summer in the Black Rock Desert of northern Nevada. This slideshow brings together some of the best images from 2004-2007. See also separate photoessays from 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007. SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL The 2008 festival, which ran from January 24 to February 3, 2008, drew some 70,000 people and featured over 200 screenings, along with an impressive line-up of tributes, award shows, and panels with industry insiders. But the big story, as always, revolved around the celebrities, the beautiful people who came to town and, for a few days, transformed the place into the epicenter of the entertainment world. The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The award ceremony in Oslo, Norway, brought together heads of state, prominent humanitarians, Hollywood celebrities, rock stars, and journalists from around the world. This photoessay captures some of the highlights in words and images. See also my photoessays from the Nobel festivities in 2005 and 2006. It's a place of uncommon natural beauty, an inland oasis surrounded by barren and unrelenting desert. But things are not quite what they seem at the Salton Sea. The lake is shrinking. The fish are dying. The birds are ailing. And the once-thriving communities along the shore are mostly abandoned. This photoessay captures the stark beauty of the place while at the same time documenting the effects of environmental decline and devastation. I Madonnari was the name given to street painters in 16th- and 17th-century Italy, itinerant artists who traveled from town to town and city to city rendering images of the Madonna on sidewalks and in public squares. Today, the tradition of street painting lives on in cities across Europe and in a growing number of communities in North America. This year marked the 21st anniversary of the I Madonnari Festival in Santa Barbara, California. When it started in 1987, it was the only event of its kind in the United States. Today, the event typically draws 25,000 visitors and renowned artists from across the country |