{"id":3862,"date":"2024-03-17T05:52:33","date_gmt":"2024-03-17T05:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/photography.local\/?page_id=3862"},"modified":"2026-05-19T03:35:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T19:35:50","slug":"ephemeral-city","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/ephemeral-city\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ephemeral City"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-1l3vzzq-bd1f1826470925c3540ed425a5711607\">\n.avia-section.av-1l3vzzq-bd1f1826470925c3540ed425a5711607{\nbackground-color:#f8f8f8;\nbackground-image:unset;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div id='av_section_1'  class='avia-section av-1l3vzzq-bd1f1826470925c3540ed425a5711607 main_color avia-section-no-padding avia-no-border-styling  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  avia-bg-style-scroll container_wrap fullsize'  ><div class='container av-section-cont-open' ><main  role=\"main\" itemprop=\"mainContentOfPage\"  class='template-page content  av-content-full alpha units'><div class='post-entry post-entry-type-page post-entry-3862'><div class='entry-content-wrapper clearfix'>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-1k1ywh2-22d859899ddf768df36720222a5b609b\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-1k1ywh2-22d859899ddf768df36720222a5b609b{\nheight:30px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-1k1ywh2-22d859899ddf768df36720222a5b609b hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-1  el_before_av_one_full  avia-builder-el-first '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-5d53me-47145ba3a67dad468fd1561dd9eae6b1\">\n.flex_column.av-5d53me-47145ba3a67dad468fd1561dd9eae6b1{\npadding:70px 17% 70px 17%;\nbackground-color:#ffffff;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='flex_column av-5d53me-47145ba3a67dad468fd1561dd9eae6b1 av_one_full  avia-builder-el-2  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr  first flex_column_div  '     ><section  class='av_textblock_section av-ltv3mmb1-81663a29871d4948cb3625cb300ab613 '   itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock'  itemprop=\"text\" ><h3>The Ephemeral City<\/h3>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #a7a7a7; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">March 31, 2019<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><br \/>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-ltv412uj-287c19d903f9be9118d3c9350da9251a\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-ltv412uj-287c19d903f9be9118d3c9350da9251a{\nheight:30px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-ltv412uj-287c19d903f9be9118d3c9350da9251a hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-4  el_after_av_textblock  el_before_av_textblock '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div><br \/>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-ltv3o32k-40477084677782a95d95c114cd028139\">\n#top .av_textblock_section.av-ltv3o32k-40477084677782a95d95c114cd028139 .avia_textblock{\nfont-size:16px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<section  class='av_textblock_section av-ltv3o32k-40477084677782a95d95c114cd028139 '   itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock'  itemprop=\"text\" ><p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3865 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/ArtsWest-Scott-London.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/ArtsWest-Scott-London.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/ArtsWest-Scott-London-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/ArtsWest-Scott-London-1030x579.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/ArtsWest-Scott-London-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/ArtsWest-Scott-London-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/ArtsWest-Scott-London-1500x844.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/ArtsWest-Scott-London-705x397.jpg 705w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-1g5x3ue-114b2448533af6ef13b54c8469c690e0\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-1g5x3ue-114b2448533af6ef13b54c8469c690e0{\nheight:20px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-1g5x3ue-114b2448533af6ef13b54c8469c690e0 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-6  el_before_av_hr  avia-builder-el-first '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\"><em>Last month, Stanford University invited me to be a part of its ArtsWest symposium, \u201cBurning Man: Art and Technology.\u201d Organized by the Bill Lane Center for the American West, the event was held at the de Young Museum in San Francisco on February 23, 2019.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\"><em>It\u2019s not the first academic symposium to explore the social and cultural significance of Burning Man, but it was certainly one of the more high-profile. Much of the recent scholarly attention reflects the fact that Burning Man has gone from a fringe event \u2014 one started by a handful of renegade artists and performers in San Francisco \u2014 to a worldwide cultural phenomenon.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\"><em>In my talk, I presented some of my images from Burning Man and reflected on what I\u2019ve learned from fifteen years of attending the event as a photographer, journalist and cultural observer.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\"><em>What follows is the text of my talk \u2014 which was titled \u201cThe Ephemeral City\u201d \u2014 along with a handful of the photos shown on the big screen.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-i6nsm-960965af9969c7bdbc74f78f1843ee1e\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-i6nsm-960965af9969c7bdbc74f78f1843ee1e{\nheight:50px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-i6nsm-960965af9969c7bdbc74f78f1843ee1e hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-7  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">I had no interest in going to Burning Man when I first heard about it in the mid-90s. I had seen photos of people doing wild and crazy things in the desert and I decided it wasn\u2019t for me. If I ever make the trip to the Black Rock Desert, I thought, it will be to enjoy the solitude and wide open spaces, not to share the place with tens of thousands of other people.<\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-1cnqxbq-9632d7c0ae5f770397be118839d58a22\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-1cnqxbq-9632d7c0ae5f770397be118839d58a22{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-1cnqxbq-9632d7c0ae5f770397be118839d58a22 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-8  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3871 size-full alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/slides01-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/slides01-1.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/slides01-1-300x100.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/slides01-1-1030x343.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/slides01-1-768x256.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/slides01-1-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/slides01-1-1500x500.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/slides01-1-705x235.jpg 705w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-1amdgqe-9b8f1a5407f60876e1fba2062871ec0d\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-1amdgqe-9b8f1a5407f60876e1fba2062871ec0d{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-1amdgqe-9b8f1a5407f60876e1fba2062871ec0d hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-9  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">But in the year 2000, my girlfriend went to Burning Man with some friends and came home insisting we go together the following year. I put up a lot of resistance to the idea. But evenually I came around and agreed to go \u2014 mostly as a favor to her.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">We arrived at Burning Man that first year in a full-on whiteout, which only confirmed my sense that the trip was a complete mistake. After the winds died down and the dust settled a bit, we looked around and started taking it all in. It struck me almost immediately that Burning Man was nothing like what I expected. It was less of a festival in the traditional sense, and more of a creative experiment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">By the end of the week, it had dawned on me that there were fascinating stories to tell about what I was seeing \u2014 about art that is <em>interactive<\/em>, about the power of creative community design, about gifting and free exchange, and about &#8220;self-expression&#8221; and what it means to experiment with alternate personas and identities.<\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-19shag6-975c5b20f9b3b9f8e2e62656dcebeebd\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-19shag6-975c5b20f9b3b9f8e2e62656dcebeebd{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-19shag6-975c5b20f9b3b9f8e2e62656dcebeebd hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-10  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3872 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides02.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides02-300x100.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides02-1030x343.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides02-768x256.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides02-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides02-1500x500.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides02-705x235.jpg 705w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-17bdk1y-8f414b2e15eb152d5231d7bdba5a9fab\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-17bdk1y-8f414b2e15eb152d5231d7bdba5a9fab{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-17bdk1y-8f414b2e15eb152d5231d7bdba5a9fab hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-11  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">I felt that these ideas were worth documenting and sharing. But it wasn\u2019t clear to me as a journalist how best to do that. I didn\u2019t want to write a long feature article about my experiences at the event. For one thing, there were already a lot of articles like that in print \u2014 some of them written by brilliant writers and cultural icons like Kevin Kelly and Bruce Sterling.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">Even if I were up to the task of writing a good piece, I wasn\u2019t sure that words were the right medium for what I wanted to convey. Burning Man is a kaleidoscopic visual experience. Mark Morford, columnist for the <em>San Francisco Chronicle<\/em>, once described it as \u201cnonstop visual orgasmica.\u201d I felt that words alone couldn\u2019t do it justice. So I came up with the idea of doing a photo essay combining images and text. I wanted to have people describe the Burning Man experience in their own words.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">I see photography as a kind of short-form journalism \u2014 a way to tell a story and communicate an idea without resorting to constructs and formulations. There was just one problem: I wasn\u2019t much of a photographer when I first started going to Burning Man. I was a writer and radio journalist. I had an early love affair with photography as a teenager and went on to study it in college, but then I put the camera aside and built a career around other pursuits.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">After that first visit to Burning Man, I returned the following year with a pair of decent cameras. I spent eight full days doing interviews, taking notes, and making pictures. At the end of that week \u2014 looking over the photos and the voluminous notes I\u2019d taken \u2014 it was clear to me that the images stood on their own. They didn\u2019t need any captions. Words seemed unnecessary. So from that moment forward, I concentrated on just making pictures.<\/p>\n<p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-15n5zna-c2d040a19145e73f81390b7387b19afe\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-15n5zna-c2d040a19145e73f81390b7387b19afe{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-15n5zna-c2d040a19145e73f81390b7387b19afe hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-12  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3870 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Sildes03.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Sildes03.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Sildes03-300x100.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Sildes03-1030x343.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Sildes03-768x256.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Sildes03-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Sildes03-1500x500.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Sildes03-705x235.jpg 705w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><br \/>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-14uo6mu-df47a55f2444ca9fe0838dd5544b1762\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-14uo6mu-df47a55f2444ca9fe0838dd5544b1762{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-14uo6mu-df47a55f2444ca9fe0838dd5544b1762 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-13  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">It wasn\u2019t lost on me that being a photographer at Burning Man violates the essential spirit of the event. Unlike a traditional festival where you go to be entertained in some way\u2014where there is a clear boundary between the performer and the audience \u2014 Burning Man is entirely participant-driven. Everybody contributes something to the overall experience.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">Susan Sontag, the late writer and great social critic, once said that \u201cphotography has become one of the principal devices for experiencing something, for giving an appearance of participation.\u201d But, she said, \u201cthe camera makes everyone \u2026 a tourist.\u201d If you\u2019re taking pictures, you\u2019re not participating fully in the moment. You can\u2019t be immersed in what\u2019s going on at the same time that you\u2019re standing on the sidelines taking pictures.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">Burning Man is notoriously difficult to describe, and no one seems to know quite what to call it. It\u2019s referred to as a public art festival, as we know. It\u2019s been called \u201ca new American underground.\u201d \u201cA countercultural convergence. \u201d \u201cA whimsical fairyland.\u201d \u201cA flea market Las Vegas.\u201d \u201cDisneyland in reverse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">For me, the phrase that comes closest to describing it is \u201can experiment in temporary community.\u201d This phrase captures the fact that it\u2019s an experiment and that it\u2019s ephemeral. It\u2019s not a place you go to, in other words, it\u2019s an <em>experience<\/em> you have \u2014 one that lasts a few days and then, when it\u2019s over, what\u2019s left are the memories. And hopefully a few good photos.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">Unfortunately, the media have persisted in framing the event as nothing more than a bacchanalian orgy in the desert. The focus tends to be on the nudity, the drugs, the hedonism, the sheer excess of it all. A case in point: <em>Time<\/em> magazine called it \u201cone of the most unbridled examples \u2026 of 21st century self-indulgence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-132iarq-c34f43e22127378f0b6b6e2a85217017\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-132iarq-c34f43e22127378f0b6b6e2a85217017{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-132iarq-c34f43e22127378f0b6b6e2a85217017 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-14  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3873 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides04.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides04.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides04-300x100.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides04-1030x343.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides04-768x256.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides04-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides04-1500x500.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides04-705x235.jpg 705w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-11nw0x2-2d6af41ed0a2645705f84e5016f73992\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-11nw0x2-2d6af41ed0a2645705f84e5016f73992{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-11nw0x2-2d6af41ed0a2645705f84e5016f73992 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-15  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">But as a journalist, I saw a very different story playing out when I arrived at Burning Man. I felt that spinning it as a big desert rave missed the significance of the event as a kind of test-tube experiment. Let me mention just a few aspects of the event that struck me as fascinating and under-reported.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">One of them, which I\u2019ve already alluded to, is the idea that everyone is a participant. This idea may not seem very radical on the face of it, but look at how little time we spend actually doing that in our culture. Our recreational activities are almost entirely passive. What we do is <em>spectate<\/em>. We go to a ballgame and watch from the stands, or we sit on the couch and stare at the TV, or we scroll through our Instagram feed. In other words, we watch <em>other people<\/em> doing things, often looking in from the outside. So being an active participant represents an entirely different proposition. You don\u2019t come to Burning Man to be entertained, you come to Burning Man to be the entertainment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">Another storyline is the power of creative place-making. At Burning Man, everybody is making stuff. Whether it\u2019s a big theme camp, or a scrappy art car, or a beautiful temple, the whole place is like a giant Makers Faire, a haven for techies, gear-heads, and mad geniuses.<\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-zjalxy-e8edaaec4830998a6a9f122ee12b1446\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-zjalxy-e8edaaec4830998a6a9f122ee12b1446{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-zjalxy-e8edaaec4830998a6a9f122ee12b1446 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-16  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3874 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides05.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides05.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides05-300x100.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides05-1030x343.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides05-768x256.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides05-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides05-1500x500.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides05-705x235.jpg 705w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-3cnkpy-f245f9e9a226d6c0e1f6f4d21cdb1abc\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-3cnkpy-f245f9e9a226d6c0e1f6f4d21cdb1abc{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-3cnkpy-f245f9e9a226d6c0e1f6f4d21cdb1abc hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-17  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">The act of building and creating something together is a powerful way to build bonds and create community. I know a number of Burners who come just for the build. By the time the gates open and everybody starts to arrive, they pack up and leave. They\u2019re not there for the party \u2014 they are there for the barn-raising, for the chance to spend time with a crew of friends and build something together.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">Another core aspect of Burning Man, one that I don\u2019t think people pay sufficient attention to, is the fact that no money changes hands at the event. I realize that it takes money \u2014 sometimes a lot of it \u2014 to get yourself out to the desert. But once there, there are no vendors. You can go for a full week or more without having to pull out your wallet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">The gift economy is a very interesting aspect of Burning Man. When people give freely without any expectation of return, it creates a positive feedback loop. When we\u2019re on the receiving end of an act of spontaneous generosity, we tend to pay that forward by being more generous to the next person we meet. This can have an immensely powerful impact on a group of people. (And needless to say, when people are selling stuff or marketing things at you, it tends to have exactly the opposite effect.)<\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-vszfl2-fdb79741348ecae5c9e30abe2627fc3d\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-vszfl2-fdb79741348ecae5c9e30abe2627fc3d{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-vszfl2-fdb79741348ecae5c9e30abe2627fc3d hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-18  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3869 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SCOTT_LONDON_Brother_Baker.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SCOTT_LONDON_Brother_Baker.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SCOTT_LONDON_Brother_Baker-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SCOTT_LONDON_Brother_Baker-1030x687.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SCOTT_LONDON_Brother_Baker-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SCOTT_LONDON_Brother_Baker-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SCOTT_LONDON_Brother_Baker-1500x1000.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SCOTT_LONDON_Brother_Baker-705x470.jpg 705w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-301eeu-c541ca8945199b2be6b0ae4c5ae2c1dc\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-301eeu-c541ca8945199b2be6b0ae4c5ae2c1dc{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-301eeu-c541ca8945199b2be6b0ae4c5ae2c1dc hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-19  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">This is Brother Baker and his \u201clovin\u2019 oven,\u201d as he calls it. He brought it all the way from Brooklyn so he could wheel it out to the temple each morning to bake croissants for people.<\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-t1ijjq-b78e88e8f7a53fc90ddb3b41ac65c440\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-t1ijjq-b78e88e8f7a53fc90ddb3b41ac65c440{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-t1ijjq-b78e88e8f7a53fc90ddb3b41ac65c440 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-20  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3868 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Scott_London_Ben_Cohen.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Scott_London_Ben_Cohen.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Scott_London_Ben_Cohen-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Scott_London_Ben_Cohen-1030x687.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Scott_London_Ben_Cohen-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Scott_London_Ben_Cohen-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Scott_London_Ben_Cohen-1500x1000.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Scott_London_Ben_Cohen-705x470.jpg 705w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-s3lh7q-67fe7c986cbf6d44831a5db16e2cc0f7\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-s3lh7q-67fe7c986cbf6d44831a5db16e2cc0f7{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-s3lh7q-67fe7c986cbf6d44831a5db16e2cc0f7 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-21  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">One hot afternoon back in 2006, a refrigerated truck pulled up on the playa, and a crew jumped out and started serving free ice cream. There was no branding on the truck or on the cones they were handing out, but I happened to recognize this man on the right. That\u2019s Ben Cohen \u2014 co-founder of Ben &amp; Jerry\u2019s Ice Cream.<\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-plmvpi-e3e425273799918b3054f4e4bf6a58e4\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-plmvpi-e3e425273799918b3054f4e4bf6a58e4{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-plmvpi-e3e425273799918b3054f4e4bf6a58e4 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-22  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3867 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/IMG_4037_Bacon_Lube.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/IMG_4037_Bacon_Lube.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/IMG_4037_Bacon_Lube-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/IMG_4037_Bacon_Lube-1030x687.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/IMG_4037_Bacon_Lube-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/IMG_4037_Bacon_Lube-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/IMG_4037_Bacon_Lube-1500x1000.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/IMG_4037_Bacon_Lube-705x470.jpg 705w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-o8gh52-980d490bfc81338b77a3010f87a135e6\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-o8gh52-980d490bfc81338b77a3010f87a135e6{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-o8gh52-980d490bfc81338b77a3010f87a135e6 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-23  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">Here\u2019s another amusing example of gifting at its finest. These guys were offering to lube people\u2019s bikes using bacon grease from back at camp.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">Another storyline at Burning Man is the power of intentional community design. The ephemeral metropolis known as Black Rock City, with its population of about 70,000 people, is designed around open spaces, public art and people-friendly plazas. It\u2019s designed for pedestrians and people on bikes rather than cars. It&#8217;s designed to maximize the number of impromptu encounters between people.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">There is a growing body of literature on the power of spontaneous exchanges and how they\u2019re one of the keys to good urban planning. As an experiment, go to Burning Man and count the number of strangers you meet in a day, then compare that to the average number of strangers you meet on a typical weekday at home. I think the difference will amaze you.<\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-mm7uqu-d78da4693594b79173fb43d4df5f0c5e\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-mm7uqu-d78da4693594b79173fb43d4df5f0c5e{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-mm7uqu-d78da4693594b79173fb43d4df5f0c5e hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-24  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3875 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides06.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides06.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides06-300x100.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides06-1030x343.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides06-768x256.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides06-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides06-1500x500.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides06-705x235.jpg 705w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-l6j7py-f449b3908db4f99b20f831e95e00a870\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-l6j7py-f449b3908db4f99b20f831e95e00a870{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-l6j7py-f449b3908db4f99b20f831e95e00a870 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-25  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">I\u2019ll come back to these different themes, or dimensions, of Burning Man. But let me say a few words about how this project of mine evolved. When I got back from Burning Man that second year, I felt that it wasn\u2019t enough just to post a group of images online. I wanted them to say something. I had a sense that if I selected the images carefully and sequenced them just right, they might speak together as a series. I decided to post 100 of my best images from the event on my website. I called it a photo essay, but there was no actual text and no captions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">I did put a fair amount of intention into all of this. But still, it was a modest little project. To my surprise, the photographs found an audience almost immediately. Some of the visitors to my site were people who had been to the event and who were looking to re-experience it through photos. I think this is quite common for people to do after they get back from the event. But it seemed to me that the majority of visitors really had little or no prior knowledge of Burning Man.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">Bear in mind that it was the early 2000s, and the world wasn\u2019t yet overrun by Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Not every photographer had his or her own website. There were plenty of photographers at Burning Man, but very few who posted images of the event online after it was over. I might have been the only one who created an actual photo essay.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">As more and more people discovered the images, photo editors for newspapers and magazines started getting in touch asking to publish the images. A 9-page spread in <em>Nevada<\/em>\u00a0magazine actually won a prestigious magazine award. This was just a year or so into the project.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3866\" style=\"margin-bottom: 15px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Blue-Lovers.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"315\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Blue-Lovers.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Blue-Lovers-210x300.jpg 210w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Blue-Lovers-494x705.jpg 494w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 315px) 100vw, 315px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">This photo, which I call \u201cBlue Lovers,\u201d was made in 2009. It was featured on the cover of <em>Common Ground<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">In 2011, Ev Williams, the co-founder of Twitter, saw my photos from that year and shared the link with more than one million of his followers. That was an important milestone. The photos went viral and soon I had so much traffic to my site that I couldn\u2019t keep up with all the e-mail and comments. In one week, I had over one million unique visitors to my site.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">All of this exposure allowed the images to be seen by new audiences, people I\u2019d never reached before\u2014book editors, gallery owners, museum curators, TV producers, even corporate ad people looking to license cool photos. (That, by the way, is not something the Burning Man organization allows. All of us professional photographers have to sign a contract to that effect before we shoot at the event.)<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">The photos also started to appear in more and more magazines. In 2012, <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> magazine invited me to cover Burning Man on assignment\u2014something I did for four years.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">In 2014, I put out a coffee-table book: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/artonfire\/\"><em>Burning Man: Art on Fire<\/em><\/a> with writer Jennifer Raiser and fellow photographer Sidney Erthal. The book actually became an Amazon bestseller in several categories, which amazed all of us, and it also got a good deal of attention in the media. We published a second, expanded edition in 2016.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">I mention all of this exposure because it became clear to me at a certain point that Burning Man had become something of a phenomenon \u2014 a kind of cultural touchstone. References to the event were now cropping up in song lyrics, on <em>The Simpsons<\/em>, and in speeches by President Obama.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">Yet the old media narratives hadn&#8217;t gone away. There was still a general sense on the part of the news establishment that Burning Man was nothing more than a hippie rave in the desert.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">Other story angles kept showing up in the media as well. Headlines would make the case that Burning Man had \u201csold out,\u201d that it was going \u201cmainstream,\u201d that it was somehow \u201cplayed out.\u201d Or, that it was becoming too &#8220;commercialized.&#8221; This, of course, is complete nonsense. How can an event where nothing is for sale be too commercial?<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">I knew better than to think I alone could change anybody\u2019s perceptions. But what I could do, perhaps, was try to be very intentional about what I was doing and use a wider-angle lens, so to speak, and offer a more expanded perspective of the event.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">I\u2019ll go back to the moment an editor from <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> contacted me in 2012. That may sound like a dream assignment. But I was actually a bit reluctant to shoot for the magazine. A friend of mine, a fellow Burning Man photographer, had covered the event for <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> in the early 2000s. He had worked very hard out there and used up a lot of social capital making images that were difficult to get. After he submitted his images, he found that the magazine&#8217;s editors had paired them with a short write-up, cobbled together by some in-house writer in New York, that was deeply critical of the event. All of his hard work was being used in service of a snarky article about a \u201cfreakshow in the desert,\u201d or something to that effect. He was devastated by this, and some of his friends at Burning Man felt that the coverage was a kind of betrayal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">So when I got the call from <em>Rolling Stone<\/em>, I said that I\u2019d only be willing to shoot for the magazine if they gave me their assurance that the coverage would be fair and even-handed. Well, they couldn\u2019t promise that. So I said, how about if I write the captions? The editor thought about it and we came to an agreement: they would craft the headline and the lede, and I could write the captions for the photos. \u2026\u00a0This is what they came up with:<\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-icyvmu-e472ebd4cb36d12b85fd72cd88210a94\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-icyvmu-e472ebd4cb36d12b85fd72cd88210a94{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-icyvmu-e472ebd4cb36d12b85fd72cd88210a94 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-26  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/culture\/culture-lists\/burning-man-2012-13687\/take-the-bait-232227\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3907 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/RollingStone2012-1030x1021.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"595\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/RollingStone2012-1030x1021.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/RollingStone2012-300x297.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/RollingStone2012-80x80.jpg 80w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/RollingStone2012-768x761.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/RollingStone2012-1536x1522.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/RollingStone2012-2048x2029.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/RollingStone2012-36x36.jpg 36w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/RollingStone2012-180x180.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/RollingStone2012-1500x1486.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/RollingStone2012-705x699.jpg 705w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-1r1o86-e3f4828a190412ebc6f7bd59aefc0e14\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-1r1o86-e3f4828a190412ebc6f7bd59aefc0e14{\nheight:1px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-1r1o86-e3f4828a190412ebc6f7bd59aefc0e14 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-27  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">Working for <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> was a creative challenge for me. It forced me to think very carefully about what I was doing at Burning Man. For one thing, I realized that most of the readers of <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> had never been to the event \u2014 they had only heard about it from friends or seen references to it online or in the media.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">For this reason, I tried to avoid some of the more hackneyed themes, and always ask myself: what am I trying to communicate here? What\u2019s the story here? I became a lot more focused on what I saw as the essence of Burning Man and why it\u2019s significant. It made the gig a lot harder, but also a lot more rewarding from a creative standpoint.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">Let me say just a few things about what, for me, is at the heart of the Burning Man experience.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">A favorite book of mine is called <em>The Act of Creation<\/em>. It was written by the British novelist and writer Arthur Koestler. He devoted years of study to creativity in science and the arts\u2014and actually did some excellent work here at Stanford in the mid-60s. Koestler observed that our minds are constrained to think within limited contexts or frames of reference. And creativity, as he described it, was the coming together of two seemingly unrelated frames of reference.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">According to Koestler, the creative act plays out differently in comedy, in science, and in the arts. In comedy, it takes the form of a collision: you\u2019re following the story along and then comes the punchline and you suddenly realize you\u2019re not in the context you thought you were. In science, the creative act takes the form of a synthesis. In the arts, it takes the form of a juxtaposition. Koestler had a clever way of describing the effect of this process. In comedy, he said, the reaction it produces is <em>ha ha<\/em>. In science, the reaction is <em>aha!<\/em> In art, the reaction is <em>aaah<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">You can see these reactions everywhere you turn at Burning Man, because the event is all about juxtaposing incompatible frames of reference. The whole thing is a kind of theater of the absurd. A sixteenth-century Spanish galleon gliding across the desert floor. A group of bankers in dusty painters\u2019 overalls holding umbrellas and briefcases. An old country church tipped on its axis, like a mouse-trap.<\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-g1qwp2-f63aa5b0753012199b3dd115001a24ba\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-g1qwp2-f63aa5b0753012199b3dd115001a24ba{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-g1qwp2-f63aa5b0753012199b3dd115001a24ba hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-28  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3876 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides07.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides07.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides07-300x100.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides07-1030x343.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides07-768x256.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides07-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides07-1500x500.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides07-705x235.jpg 705w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-dz1v52-733398d57aea1d0ef8ff92c9818102e9\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-dz1v52-733398d57aea1d0ef8ff92c9818102e9{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-dz1v52-733398d57aea1d0ef8ff92c9818102e9 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-29  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">It\u2019s like walking around in a Salvador Dali painting. In fact, like so much of the art and writing from the surrealist period, what you experience at Burning Man can be startling, unconventional, hilarious, mystifying, and also, in some deep sense, eye-opening.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">A lot of what you see at the event speaks to the power within all of us to create. We come into the world as immensely creative beings. Just look at the creativity of little children. But that creativity tends to be bred out of us. So, when as adults we arrive at a place like Burning Man that actively encourages us to participate, to create, to make and to share, we become awakened to something that lies dormant deep within us.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">At Burning Man, the creativity is mind-boggling. There are the art installations. But there are also fire-breathing rhinos, bizarre allegorical performance pieces, marauding bananas, drinking chess, and burning pianos flying through the air.<\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-ct8dly-57820897779f4af17ec576bbca57c52d\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-ct8dly-57820897779f4af17ec576bbca57c52d{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-ct8dly-57820897779f4af17ec576bbca57c52d hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-30  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3877 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides08.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides08.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides08-300x100.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides08-1030x343.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides08-768x256.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides08-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides08-1500x500.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides08-705x235.jpg 705w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-ad2amu-677a93fdaffdebfe64d718f9a68e8281\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-ad2amu-677a93fdaffdebfe64d718f9a68e8281{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-ad2amu-677a93fdaffdebfe64d718f9a68e8281 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-31  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">Burning Man makes artists of us all. My own work certainly attests to that fact, but so does that of countless others at Burning Man \u2014 many of whom arrive at the event, bewildered and perhaps reluctant to be there, as I was, only to awaken some new capacity or artistic vision.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">Another aspect of creativity is being freed from restrictive ways of thinking. Burning Man creates a context that sets people free to experiment with new modes of being. It frees us from social conventions. We can let go of old identities \u2014 or perhaps adopt new ones.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">Most of us, especially here in America, like to think we\u2019re free because we live in a more or less free society. But we\u2019re trapped by our mental ideas and constructs. We live in a kind of bondage to habitual ways of thinking and perceiving the world. We live within carefully constructed identity bubbles that don\u2019t leave much room for new growth.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">So, there is something about going off the grid for a week and releasing ourselves from the confines of our everyday reality that can shatter that sense of limitation and \u201cbreak open the head,\u201d as Daniel Pinchbeck puts it. At Burning Man, you see this process playing out in a thousand different ways. For some people, it could mean adopting a special playa name, or assuming a different persona for each day of the week \u2014 each with its own name and set of outfits. For others, it could mean pushing the boundaries of their sexual orientation or venturing out far beyond their comfort zone.<\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-9nnija-97f33008e236381e0ec9fae3d1dfa2a0\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-9nnija-97f33008e236381e0ec9fae3d1dfa2a0{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-9nnija-97f33008e236381e0ec9fae3d1dfa2a0 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-32  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3917 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides09.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides09.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides09-300x100.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides09-1030x343.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides09-768x256.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides09-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides09-1500x500.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides09-705x235.jpg 705w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-87eihi-134ae0d358903af387101bc569ecbbda\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-87eihi-134ae0d358903af387101bc569ecbbda{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-87eihi-134ae0d358903af387101bc569ecbbda hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-33  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">How we choose to break free of our thought-prisons is a very personal thing, but the fact is that we need safe contexts in which to do it. There are very few public places in our society where that\u2019s even allowed, let alone encouraged.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">I think that for some people there\u2019s freedom simply in being nobody in particular. I\u2019ve struck up some of the most remarkable conversations with strangers at Burning Man, only to learn \u2014 deep into a long, heartfelt conversation \u2014 that they were wealthy entrepreneurs, prominent architects, Bollywood movie stars, nuclear physicists, sex workers, professors at elite colleges and universities. One time I had an hour-long conversation with with someone I later learned was the crown-prince [and now king] of a country in Europe.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">One of the core principles of Burning Man is the idea of radical self-expression. Some people take that to mean defying convention in some way, like dressing up in a wacky outfit, or doing something daring in public. But after you\u2019ve run around in the desert wearing nothing but bunny ears and a tutu for a few days, the thrill wears off. At that point you have to reach within yourself to find some experience, some capacity, some creative spark that connects with what makes you feel alive inside. To discover that and bring it forth takes courage. I think that\u2019s what Burning Man\u2019s founder, Larry Harvey, was referring to when he spoke of <em>radical<\/em> self-expression.<\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-5r0pqe-5b203ec5968f16205f6fc8d516fe0898\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-5r0pqe-5b203ec5968f16205f6fc8d516fe0898{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-5r0pqe-5b203ec5968f16205f6fc8d516fe0898 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-34  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3918 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides12.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides12.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides12-300x100.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides12-1030x343.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides12-768x256.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides12-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides12-1500x500.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Slides12-705x235.jpg 705w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-492mly-4c4588055551a95f5bfc06d09a9adbba\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-492mly-4c4588055551a95f5bfc06d09a9adbba{\nheight:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-492mly-4c4588055551a95f5bfc06d09a9adbba hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-35  el_after_av_hr  avia-builder-el-last '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">We need places in our culture where we can discover those capacities, where we can free ourselves from the shackles of our social and professional roles. I think many of us get this at an intellectual level. But the fact that there is a place where we can discover this at an experiential level is a different thing altogether. On the playa, it\u2019s not an abstract notion, it\u2019s a visceral experience.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">Burning Man represents a kind of skunk works, a laboratory of creative possibility. I think we\u2019re already seeing how some of the design characteristics that go into the event are beginning to inform and inspire changes in society at large.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">This is reflected in much of the new thinking about public art and its role in building vibrant communities, for example. It\u2019s reflected in some of the principles of innovative urban design. You see it in the ways more and more groups and organizations are emphasizing ritual and play as an integral part of everyday life. And you find it in the growing debate around commercialization and the need to curb its effects in everyday life.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">These ideas are now shaking things up on a wide range of fronts. Burning Man, far from being something on the cultural <em>fringe<\/em>, now looks more and more like an expression of the cultural <em>frontier<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Proxima-nova, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; font-weight: 400; color: #33333; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 24px;\">Thank you very much.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/p><\/div>\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-2hm8ye-b42d5e244c616ac0e68ce8b89ca0c8d6\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-2hm8ye-b42d5e244c616ac0e68ce8b89ca0c8d6{\nheight:200px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-2hm8ye-b42d5e244c616ac0e68ce8b89ca0c8d6 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-36  el_after_av_one_full  avia-builder-el-last '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this lecture, presented at Stanford University&#8217;s ArtsWest symposium at the de Young fine art museum in San Francisco, I reflect on what I\u2019ve learned from many years of attending Burning Man as a photographer, journalist and cultural observer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3864,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"iawp_total_views":102,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3862","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3862"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6145,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3862\/revisions\/6145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottlondon.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}