Life and Death – The Temple at Burning Man

Peter Gordon was recently named Irish and then overall European Photographer of the Year by the IPPA and the FEP.

Over the course of a week in late summer 2011 Peter made a collection of photographs at the Burning Man Festival in Nevada.  Located in the starkly beautiful setting of the Black Rock Desert, the festival attracts some of the most interesting and extraordinary people, art and activities you are ever likely to find in one place.

According to Peter ‘Burning Man transcends traditional interpretations of what a festival is. It has its own identity, its own peculiar and astounding nuances. It represents more than just a week in the desert:  It represents a way of life’

A central feature of the festival is the building and burning of a temple. The Temple in many ways is the spiritual hub of the festival. People visit and write messages for departed loved one’s on its walls and meditate in its centre. They grieve. They marry. They party. The festivals climax see’s the Temple being burnt and with it the grief that people have shared within its walls. These Burning Man photos are a document of a week at the Temple which seek to share the narrative behind its construct, its being and its ultimate destruction.