Burning Man Headquarters 2/16/07
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a weekend in san francisco… burning man headquarters flew me up to shoot their regional summit. from plane, to train, to bus, straight to bmhq where my forehead collided swiftly with raspa’s belly. a red & black name tag was attached to my boob ‘official documentarian’ it said and then i was set free to capture the historic shennanigans. larry harvey in soft light with a microphone, david best going over a binder of various projects. danger ranger kissed my hand. bex put an 8-pack of redbull in a secret place in the fridge. ‘it was in your ryder, ya?’ wink, and caffeination and all the things of kamikaze shooting did occur. friday afternoon and people with name tags from japan, england and all over began arriving… nuts and apples, biodegradable forks, coffee and introductions… paul jorgensen showing up was a great surprise. he got a head butt to the gut as well. . the next day, i arrived early to a day of breakout groups and amazing conversation. at one point while all 50 regional reps from all over the world were sitting together, i scanned their faces, lingering on a few and realized that i was in a room with everyone responsible for the biggest inspiration of my life. these people, their motivation, their ideas have a direct influence on my art, on my life and waves of gratitude came then… my camera and i sat silent, listening… after hours of redbull and shooting, of climbing steep ladders to the roof for a session, of stepping around art and sculptures in the warehouse, of skulking around a tight room where larry was having a meeting, after all that, we boarded a safari bus to berkeley for a party at michael christensen’s place. the safari driver made us sing ‘ah mee mo weh, ah mee mo weh’ and when asked how he’s doing, would answer ‘safari, so good.’ a quick stop at a shipyard where burning man art is made and then onto the party. michael christensen’s place left me speechless. mesmerizing fire art sculpture with intermittant green, yellow and blue flames, intricate steel lace patterns on ceilings from parts of art lit famously. my camera celebrated it in the form of long exposures. i met many people who said heart things about my work and made me feel understood. i came away from the weekend thinking of how unique a situation i am in. i’ve been taking photos of people and events my entire life, since i was a little girl awake at night, making backgrounds out of bedsheets tacked to my wall with pushpins, stealing film from my father and shooting ketchup on oranges. i’ve always been doing this, my entire life, yet it took one event, one group of people to unlock it in a way that it becomes a force, a need… not just a desire… but this all encompassing reason. there is support and encouragement. there is opportunity and genuine networking… there is a sense that if i have chocolate someone out there must have peanut butter… that people recognize this in each other, that want to share it, create a lifestyle from it, is a blessed thing. also a blessed thing, that the very people responsible for my awakening are now flying me up and putting redbull in secret stashes for me. at the party, a girl stared at my hands and in sharpie on my knuckles wrote ‘LIVE’ on one hand and ‘LIFE’ on the other. throughout the night i would thrust them out at people watching smiles emerge. at 10pm i took my knuckles to the next party. burning man was done with me and bohemian carnival was in full force. it was like home.
