There’s something crazy, wild and beautiful happening in the Black Rock Desert right now. Like a scene from Mad Max, the end of each summer sees a whole city emerge from the barren landscape of the dry lakebed. For one short week, thousands of people descend on the site more commonly known as Burning Man Festival to defy the dust storms and intense sun and have the biggest adventure of their lives amongst the most surreal art we’ve ever seen. Writer and photographer NK Guy has documented the past 16 years of the festival, immortalizing its giant wooden temples and mechanical fire-breathing octopi, and an impressive array of burning men, set alight at the end of each year’s festival. We wish we were there, but these stunning images taken from Guy’s new book, The Art of Burning Man, just about satisfy our longing.
NK Guy’s ‘The Art of Burning Man’ is out now, through TASCHEN.
burningcam.com
Credits
All images © NK Guy/TASCHEN
Main image The Temple of Joy, 2002 Artists: David Best and the Temple Crew The Temple of Joy, a massive temporary wood structure built for the Burning Man arts festival 2002. A powerful laser beam, built by Russell Wilcox, was installed thousands of feet away across the desert floor, and aligned with an opening in the upper level of the Temple.