They came to take the initiative and save an ancient right.
In 2006, the National Park Service announced plans to ban bonfires on San Francisco's Ocean Beach because they didn't want to spend the money to keep it clean.
Everyone agreed it was a filthy beach, dangerous too with shards of glass lying just under the sand in many places.
Local citizen's groups immediately cried foul, public bonfires had been going on there all the way back to the Ohlones, the indigenous tribe that inhabited the peninsula now called San Francisco. Lawsuits against the NPS were filed and lawyers started getting involved.
A local group associated with the Burning Man art festival, calling themselves Burners Without Borders, had an idea that gave the NPS the option they needed. BWB advertised for Burning Man artists to create and build fire rings, so that bonfires would be in designated places and hopefully this would help make it easier to clean, thus avoiding a bonfire ban.
A deal was struck and after reviewing concept submissions, four teams of artists were chosen, each with completely different ideas on how to create a fire ring.
I photographed the following unpublished documentary starting in Jan. of 2007, shooting it through that summer and into the fall.
It's in four parts, one for each team of artists.
First there was the team of Rebecca Anders and Yasmin Mawaz-Khan, who got helpful friends to form the Fire Bloom Crew with them and built two steel fire rings out of a retired water tank they chopped up.
Their first fire ring made its debut on April 14, 2007.
For a full-size image, click on any photograph. Hit either delete, backspace or back page to go back.
Feb. 2007. Anders shares a laugh with Mawaz-Khan after delivering the water tank they’d be working with at the Box Shop.
Taking a break w/apple.
Anders cut the ends off and Mawaz-Khan divided the edges by cutting notches to make each with four even sections.
Austin Staunch throws a shower of sparks up as she grinds the metal.
Anders got tired of waiting for a piece to fall off that she was attempting to cut with the torch, so she gave it an extra kick.
Anders heads for the door as Staunch cuts hot metal.
Two teams of artists talk shop in a shop. Left to right Mawaz-Khan, Anders, Luarte and Macchiarini at The Box Shop.
The Fire Bloom Crew relax.
The Fire Bloom Crew get back to work, this time in Oakland and on their second fire ring.
Debut of the first Fire Bloom, April 14, 2007 on San Francisco's Ocean Beach.
April 14, 2007 -- A lightsaber war breaks out at the debut of the first Fire Bloom, after someone showed up with a box of them and started handing them out.
"It's really important that the National Park Service sees that there is a space for them to be involved with the community in a different way than they've already been involved. Also just the fact that the local artist community is involved in something where it's kind of working with the authorities as such, to create something that will facilitate easier beach cleanup; and also bringing people together, whether it's a crew of people working on the project or whether it's two groups of strangers getting together at the beach to stand around a fire." Yasmin Mawaz-Khan
Go to Fire Without Borders II Go to Fire Without Borders III Go to Fire Without Borders IV