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 THE PLAYA

I have been attending the Burning Man Festival in Black Rock City Nevada since 2010.  As an artist, I cannot describe the profound influence that this city, created by artists, has had on my life and my work.  Below is a series of photographs that I have taken from each year.  The photo galleries are arranged beginning with my first year of attendance. The video above is a slideshow that I created in 2010. It was presented to the public at Rochester Contemporary Art Center in Rochester NY.  For those unfamiliar with the Burning Man phenomena, this video is a fairly concise introduction.

2010 Metropolis- The Life of Cities

This was my first year on the playa. I camped with Root Society, one of the largest Sound Camps at the festival. I spent a significant portion of time assisting with construction of camp infrastructure.

2011 Rites of Passage

This year the festival sold out of tickets much faster than anticipated. This was to become a trend. The theme of the year was appropriate because I drove from Rochester, New York and back to attend the festival. This year I camped with the sound camp Osiris. My role within the camp was very similar to Root Society, but the camp operated on a much smaller scale.

2012  Fertility 2.0 

It seems that many people have a year at Burning Man that for whatever reason they don't take out the camera.  That was 2012 for me. I returned to Root Society theme Camp and my old friends. This year I was introduced to the Playa Waste Raiders, with whom I would camp in 2013.

2013 Cargo Cult

This was the year of the great RV fiasco, where a friend and myself were contracted to drive an RV from Rochester NY to NV; We ended up having to travel to New Hampshire to pick up the RV which promptly broke down on the way back to Rochester. Fortunately, we were able to share a ride with some fellow Rochestarians who were also attending the Festival.  This was the first year that I would spend camping with the Playa Waste Raiders, as part of 404 Village Not Found.  We ran the Art Car Galileo II, which was modeled after the shuttlecraft from the original Star Trek Series.

2014 Caravansary

This year I camped again with the Waste Raiders, and visited my old friends at Root Society. I arrived on the Playa via the newly created Burner Express. This shuttle service was well worth the price and saved an incredible amount of time. This year's Burn began with a Hailstorm and ended with an art installation ("Embrace" see photo) being burned in the daylight hours, a first.

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