Photos from Brigadoon of the Desert
Christopher Arnold
Photographer's Statement:
I first attended the Burning Man event in 2002 after completing the launch of a business venture in Japan. My father had commented that I was a little intense at the time and could benefit from the experience of "dancing around the bonfire," so to speak. My experience from that first year was transformative for me on many levels. I was so overwhelmed with the openness of the people, the extravagance of the art and the smorgasbord of musical styles I witnessed from people around the globe who’d convened in such an improbable location. It was such a positive experience for me, that I decided to attend regularly to see if I could contribute art of similar caliber to the shared community in the 13 years following. When the playa event was cancelled due to the pandemic in 2020, I wanted to offer something of myself in appreciation for the culture, but also to share some of what I appreciate about the culture to a broader community beyond Burners. So I wrote Brigadoon of the Desert to give an insider perspective for those who may never go, or who may never want to go but are curious about what we do when we forsake our normalcy to camp in the dust for a week each year.
Approaching the Man
This is the first time I saw Burning Man in person, in 2002. As I walked on this path toward this monument I didn’t fully understand, it seemed like a departure from the normal world I’d built of my self-identity, my societal construct of familiarity. It was a transcendent feeling not because I knew where I was going, but because I was leaving behind the familiar. The weather was rough to adapt to, and I felt that there was something about this cultural-context departure that was deliberately harsh. At some point in the week, I felt that I’d “broken” something of my association with what was past for me in my life. It felt a little bit like the state that one achieves after hours of meditation.
Black Rock City Rangers in the Sun
The founders of Burning Man realized that there needed to be a health and safety support team to ensure that anyone in need of help in the harsh conditions of the playa could receive support. A man by the playa name of Danger Ranger (aka Michael Mikel) established the tradition of the Black Rock City Rangers. They're akin to the Guardian Angels which were started by Curtis Sliwa in New York to establish a sense of civilian-supported decency and safety in an otherwise harsh environment. BRC Rangers are the city's first responders, and heroes of the community, passionate about being stewards of the movement's ethos. In this picture, two of our heroes walk into the setting sun from the vantage point of the Center Camp.
The Space Whale (And Chiron the Chimera)
Attribution: THE SPACE WHALE BY MATT SCHULTZ AND THE PIER GROUP WITH ANDROID JONES AND ANDY TIBBETTS
The Space Whale was a gigantic stained glass whale sculpture created by Matt Schultz and the Pier Group with Android Jones and Andy Tibbetts. It appears to hover above the playa surface as if in mid-dive with an adoring kiss from a smaller whale that is rising up to touch noses with it. The massive sculpture is supported through a substructure beneath the playa, giving it a the appearance of weightlessness in spite of its massive size. My costume for this year was inspired by Leonardo DaVinci, to whom that year’s theme of Renaissance was dedicated. I built the collapsible compound bow around a design I’d sketched while studying Leonardo’s drawings many years prior. Because the mythical character of Chiron (referred to in astrology as Sagittarius) was an archer, my wife and I designed the costume around the concept of the mythical chimera. The ropes between the rear hooves and my knees were to create the illusion that my legs would move just like a horse.
Shiva Before the Fire. Christopher Arnold as Shiva, photographed by Xeni Jardin
In Hindu lore, an attribute of Brahma (embodiment of the universe) is the aspect of Shiva, the generative and destructive force animating the cycle of life. Shiva is a benevolent protector in human form, and a reminder of the ephemerality of time in the Nataraja “eternal dance.” Here I recreated the Nataraja dance pose of Shiva’s typical depiction in the center of a ring of fire. Photographer and blogger Xeni Jardin captured this picture in 2003 with the flames of the burned man in the background. I don’t know Xeni personally. This wasn’t planned, it just happened. A lot of things at Burning Man happen out of spontaneity and inspiration of the moment.
Playa landscape and mountains
Burners love dust. You think about it and combat it the week you are there. You find your car and your clothes covered with it for the rest of the year once you return. The first few dust storms on the playa, you choke, sneeze and cry. Dust is probably the most important instrument in the “breaking” that happens to most people who come to Burning Man. Once you get over the dread and frustration of trying to combat the symbolic (and literal) entropy of dusty disorder, you start to appreciate the intrusion. Eventually, the smell of playa dust is a welcome association to something important and ineffable. It may look desolate and uninviting to many, but for the initiated, this dusty plain is a canvas of manifold inspirations. It reminds you constantly that we are “all made of star stuff” and that “to dust we will return.” Somehow this close proximity to dust is an assault on the senses at the start and a love affair at the end.
The Man Structure from close
What is The Man as a symbol? The lore of the Burner community doesn’t codify a specific interpretation. Each is open to approach the iconography of the event with one’s own interpretation or artistry. The only thing that is relatively codified is how to replicate The Man each year. A team of designers have created a template that varies in size in different years, but generally always gives you the sense that the man you see each year is the same one you’d seen the previous year, in a different thematic guise. The loss of The Man each year is a glorious event for some and an introspective and somber event for others. The community pledges in spite of hardships that they will “always burn the man.” It’s a process of dedication and an endeavor that speaks to the pride of the community effort to come together in the creative process we’ve come to be so endeared to.
Christopher Arnold is a photographer based in San Francisco. He has traveled to over 50 countries so far, which he blogs about on his travel site leapingaroundtheworld.com. Part of his motivating force for travel is an interest in world folk music, specifically percussion traditions from around the world, which he blogs about on rhythmatism.com. When he isn’t traveling or drumming, he's a business development consultant, which he writes about on ncubeeight.com.