know until I started editing photos if I had captured anything worthwhile. This year, I knew where I wanted to go with it and people had found out about it. It was an overwhelming response during burn week, having so many people seeking me out because they had connected with me via Instagram and knew where I was camping, and they actually came to find me.
This year’s group photo was more than overwhelming too, and I was stressed out the entire week, the entire week. I had no clue how many people were going to come. I was stressed about being able to direct them and to get them into the formation that I had planned. Of course, none of it went as planned, but I wouldn't I change how it turned out for the world.
What goes into making this project and the culminating photo?
There's a lot actually. There's a lot of thinking, photo editing and interviewing people. It takes so much time. I mean, you can talk about Burning Man forever and so when you have two people talking about their experiences and actually being able to relate to each other, it’s totally different than talking to someone who's never been. The individual portraits are very important to me honestly, that's where the project started. I didn't get the idea for a group photo last year until I was midway through the week and I didn't start telling people until maybe Wednesday. I knew I wanted to go back and do it because of the energy last year and the connections were so emotional. Someone asked me how long it took me to organize the group photo and I almost said. “Oh, you know, just last week.” But I had to quickly bring myself down and realized it almost took an entire year. My photo shoot last year had 25 people. It was just me that really was doing everything, other than the word of mouth, and that doesn't include keeping up with social media, which is separate from my personal photography business.
Erin Douglas Founder of Black Burner Project