up and down the block (b/w)

BM 2010.

It was like watching the rise and fall of a city in fast forward. We arrived as camps were building up their stages and shade structures; by the end of the week, we watched as it all got broken down. In between those two endpoints, an entire city of 50,000 people existed and thrived. There was a "downtown" at Center Camp where you could buy coffee and ice (the only two commodities that could be purchased with money- priorities, priorities); there were "suburbs" of tents and camps stretching out into the desert; there were rangers whose job it was to keep order and there was a DMV that registered official Mutant Vehicles; there were workshops and events at all hours of the day, bars, clubs, art galleries, a Census, and services of every kind, based purely on human ingenuity and what could logistically be hauled out into the middle of an alkaline desert- which was, surprisingly, a lot.

There was also the equivalent of a place of worship, which was the Temple- by far my favorite place on the playa. The Temple, like the Man, goes up in flames at the end of the week each year. Before it burns, it is a place where people can go to leave offerings, pray, grieve, and write on the walls. I went out to the Temple every day, usually at dusk when the playa would start settling into the quiet transition between midday heat and nighttime revelry.

At the Temple, Burning Man was just as much about mourning as it was about hedonism- two different forms of letting go. And again, at the Temple, Black Rock City was a city, as with any city. If you open the walls to the people, they will write love poems, they will write regrets and I miss you's, they will write hopes for themselves and others. They will write declarations of pride, joy, heartache, and triumph. Some of them will tag with Sharpies and spray paint. They will vent anger. They will write responses to each other. They will write things that they find they can't say.

(What is it about sharing it that helps to let it go? It's like a large-scale, written attempt at integration, and comfort through shared experience and resonance- knowing that your experience is not unique, even as you are alone with it. It is as if, together, people are saying to one another, I hear you.)

We camped with Vulcantown, the Burning Man contingent of a lot of fire spinners, jugglers, and object manipulators who live at the Vulcan in Oakland. Vulcantown was a part of the "inner circle" at Conclave, the massive fire show that happens before the Man burns on Saturday night, so we got to be as close to the Man as it was possible to get. The fireworks literally landed around us, like showers of fireflies, as they fell from the sky. Then a blinding dust storm kicked up as the Man collapsed into a giant bonfire, and the storm turned everything around me into a windy, howling orange-black punctuated by the glow of the fire, the shadows of other people, and the disembodied techno music from passing art cars. I had never been part of such an alien landscape in my life. That was the point at which I stopped taking photos. I couldn't even try; I just wanted to be there; and suddenly there was a very clear limit as to what I could ever hope to document.

The Xavier Polk session

Xavier Polk: upcoming music producer, business owner, and photography student at RYSE center, all by the age of 16. He asked me to do a photo shoot with him for his promotional purposes, I was happy to provide a service. Here are what I consider the best shots of the afternoon.

Back from the burn.

Burning Man was revelatory, you guys. I was planning on making it a big photo essay project, but what ended up happening was that I had very little desire to take photos while I was out there; I just wanted to be in it. It was a fascinating perspective for me to recognize in myself- that ultimately, my first priority is to experience something novel, not to photograph it. If I end up going back out there next year, that may change. I would love to set up a formal photo studio and concentrate on doing Burning Man portraits. I look forward to that, too.

Photos will be coming shortly, but before that happens, I'm waiting on a new Macbook to ship my way (!!!!!). The Burning Man photos will be the first photos that I upload to my new laptop and Lightroom will be the first software that I install. And then my head will explode.

Martin Herrera Soler

Here is a great little set of photos from his trip to Cuba. Really nice selections.

enjoy:

http://martinhsphoto.photoshelter.com/gallery/Cuba-Havana-Latin-America/G0000.4XxWHeAR9M/0/1

First shot of the M8

Here is the first sample shot Ya'll. I got an early demo model M8, used, off of craiglslist. Wilfried the guy who owned it was great....originally from germany, and a lover of rangefinder cameras. So far, the images look great.

sf window!

believe it or not, this is only a reflection. All of it took place in the reflection of a window, only adjustments were made to the tone. crazy, looks like a collage.

another Perspective on hands... (RYSE summer jam)

we worked nicely together at the RYSE summer jam, and our vantage points seem to have complimented each other nicely. It was a great experience for the collective to do this event. Here are a couple shots in desaturated color...