Here are photographs from seven years at the best party on the planet
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A nasty dust storm didn't stop this couple from exploring the art installation Cleavage In Space by Rosanna Scimica. The theme for the 2003 Burning Man art festival was Beyond Belief, a reference to theism, and this creation represented a heavenly chandelier that fell to earth.
Angel of the Apocalypse, 2005, by The Flaming Lotus Girls
Missing Uncle Bob -- Mark Edwards, 36, of San Francisco at the Temple of Hope, built by artist Mark Grieve and crew in 2006. Coming directly from the wake of his recently departed "uncle Bob" to Burning Man, Edwards said "Burning Man is the best place in the world, so, now that I've cried and felt release I feel good."
Cali In Wonderland -- No it’s not Alice in the Funhouse with that hookah-smoking caterpillar. That’s Cali Mastny wandering around the maze under The Man at Psyche, Burning Man, 2005. She does, however, look like she belongs there. Advice From A Caterpillar by artist Emma Hardy.
In Memoriam: Anonymous artwork, each cross shows number of US military deaths for the listed month. Psyche, 2005.
Rabbits run rampant at the annual Billion Bunny March, as Mein Hare (A.K.A. San Francisco performance artist $teven Ra$pa) wields his bullhorn and signature twin beards at Vault of Heaven, Burning Man, 2004.
The Man explodes, 2008, The American Dream
2008, The American Dream: The Man just before sunrise w/waning crescent moon.
Aug. 29, 2005 -- Opening Fire Ceremony, 'first flame' of the festival: Crimson Rose used reflected sunshine to ignite the brown paper she held up high. After a thunderous crescendo of noise from the crowd, the first official flame of Burning Man, PSYCHE, appeared. She then used it to light the Center Camp Cauldron, created by the artist Tabasco.
Aug. 31, 2007 -- Natural Glow Gifts: After all that dust and those 50 mph winds, nature turns twice as nice for Green Man.
These towers were designed in 1999 by sculptor Pepe Ozan out of playa mud and rebar, then filled with kindling wood. On the night before the burning of The Man, firedancers circle around La Mystere de Papa Loko as it is consumed by flames.
Aug. 29, 2004 -- Under the light of a full moon, Rosanna DiBiase-Ferrera honors the Temple of the Stars, designed by artist David Best and at this point still under construction, which she helped build. Only two sources of light are in this image, moonlight, plus lamplights in the photograph, no other illumination was involved. Rosanna said she'd been wishing that she could have a picture of her shadow, right before I came along with everything necessary to make it happen. At Burning Man, sometime wishes do come true, after all.
Sept. 2, 2005 -- Spotlight flash on Karl V. Miller, who immediately stepped off and walked out of the frame during the ten-second exposure that followed. Essentially, this photograph was a happy accident. Sola was designed and built by Sage Kochavi, Ryan Wartena, Chris Wagner, Liza Vitale and Carl Gruesz, along with about 50 volunteers from the Boston, Mass. area.
Aug. 31, 2005 -- With other members of Omarz Otter Oasis village, Josie "Aurora" Balster and Rebecca Harrell welcome the bride and groom to a wedding ceremony at the Temple of Dreams, designed and built by Mark Grieve and crew.
Fianchettoed Bishop: Annie Lalla and Hilary Lawson pose for the camera as opposing chess players on Woodpusher's Gambit, built by artists Marianna Ferris, Stephen Jones and Tim Brennan for Psyche, Burning Man, 2005. Can any chess players spot the reason why I call this Fianchettoed Bishop?
Last Tree North: By the light of a full moon Greg A. Cutler interacts with the art installation Tree with Chair, built by artist Peterson Conway in 2007. This photograph used moonlight, no flash and a long exposure, as the stars in the sky indicate, and it was taken near the northern perimeter trash fence, seen in the background.
Raising The Man for Wheel Of Time, Burning Man, 1999.
Raising The Man for Wheel Of Time, Burning Man, 1999.
Playa Pond: One from the vaults, Wheel Of Time, Burning Man 1999. All I can recall is that the people in this camp said they were from nearby Sparks, Nev.
Obelisk @ Dawn, Sept. 3, 2006 -- Tower of Triumphant Struggle by Jordan Tenney, just before dawn.
Sept. 2, 2007, just before dawn -- The previous evening was the performance and burning of Crude Awakening by Karen Cusolito, Dan Das Mann and crew, in which a giant oil derrick replica was burned to the ground. The sun was about ten minutes away from coming up over a ridgeline to the east when I came upon Japa Kaur, singing and playing her Martin Backpacker guitar, which she named 'Rod.' She explained later that she was singing part of the "Aquarian Sadhana" chants given by Yogi Bhajan to chant in the early morning hours in order to help with the transition between the Piscean and Aquarian age.
Amanda van Baarsen came all the way from BC, Canada, to spin fire and perform, just before The Man was burned at Hope and Fear, Burning Man, 2006.
Inside the maze under The Man, a view inside an open drawer from the Curiosity Cabinet of the Collective Unconscious by The GVP and Co. This 'curiosity cabinet' was built from an old card catalog. The cabinet offered 30 interpretations and various definitions of the unconscious, one in each drawer.
Looking south from on top of The Man toward the six o'clock position at Psyche, Burning Man 2005.
A woman walks away from "Passage," a scrap-metal sculpture created by Karen Cusalito and Dan Das Mann at Psyche, 2005.