PDF Decompression Navel-gazing, part 2. Paparazzi.
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Over the years, Playa del Fuego, the Mid-Atlantic official regional Burning Man event, has evolved an incredibly well-written and lengthy camera policy* that serves as a solid compromise between artists providing photographs of an ephemeral event by the subject’s request, participants who want to record snapshots for their own memory or personal use explaining an ultimately inexplicable event to friends and family, and participants concerned about online privacy for personal or professional reasons (it is the Washington DC area’s regional burn, and yes, we do have participants with clearance). It is a compromise built around consent, which is not just for touching people. I am very fond of it, and I try to work by it outside of the burn’s borders; it’s more restrictive than local law, but I find the ethics behind it more important than getting away with whatever I can. And I appreciate seeing people discuss it, hash out their own motivations and stances on art and privacy, even when old arguments on whether photography can ever be considered art at all come up and my own feelings take a hit. The very best policy means nothing if people don’t think about why it’s there.
As for where I stand, I bring not-my-best digital camera with me to burns to capture friends' costumes, structures, performances, and other art by request, and go through considerable effort to show respect in how, when, and if I publicly share any of it, especially crowd shots. Still, over the years it leaves my tent less and less, and I prefer the big burn without it, and feel sad about the percentage of the crowd just holding their cell phones up and watching the entire thing through a screen, just like any concert today. Separately from privacy concerns, there is a sense of immediacy lost when observing the world through glass or electronics, and there are trade-offs to be made between capturing memories and making them. I shoot a very small amount of the time, usually when I'm on duty as a Ranger and thus already more intensely participating in the event but removed from it, awareness raised for situations which might require my attention. I'm generally glad for the respectful photos other people created from activities I missed or intentionally failed to photograph. And I know from a few years of experience that, far more than any other festival, photos from a burn aren't just the highlights, but landmarks and a nearly random sample of whatever was going on at the time. Much beauty will always have been left unrecorded, and that's okay.
This year I brought a Polaroid Land Camera and several packs of Fuji peel-apart film. I wish it produced less waste and was cheaper to use (which is, yes, most of why the world switched to digital), because it provided a fabulous opportunity to photograph activities with more immediacy -- and then immediately hand full control of the image over to the subject. This allowed folks who wanted a record of their adventures but might be worried about their online privacy the rare opportunity to have their cake and eat it. Sometimes I asked to scan or photograph the paper print, sometimes I gave it away before I even saw the final image. I never saved the peel-apart negatives, which can sometimes be reclaimed through chemistry and elbow grease. It was a thrilling and frightening exercise in not just giving away copies of art but giving up control of it. I have no evidence whatsoever of my own best photo from the event: a convincingly-dressed Jesus yelling at me through a megaphone from the back of a cart decorated in mannequin legs just as it tipped over into a muddy ditch. (Possibly my ideas of 'best' are questionable, but such is the Playa itself.) The sheer ridiculousness of a Polaroid in this age, and the way that it makes a record of the event easier to give away than keep delighted me, and nearly every subject I interacted with, even more than I expected. I hope to bring some instant film setup again next time, possibly as a fixed photo booth rather than a roving experiment. Off the grid for whatever reason, everything old is new again.
* PDF guide for PDF, Photography and Video and Social Media sections