Interview with Black Rock City photographer Philippe Glade
One day in 2013, a man walked into our camp with his camera asking about our domes. "Who built this? What is this called? How do I make one?" He then awarded us something he called
, his own personal award for designers at the Burn, which he awards on the merits of creativity, design and architectural breakthrough. Thus began our friendship with this interesting and forward-looking man.
Because there is not one answer to the numerous environmental challenges present in the Black Rock Desert, a lot of participants come up with many valuable and forward-looking solutions to accommodate life where it is impossible. Year after year, Black Rock City organically sets itself as a unique testing ground for individual or collective structures. The city itself is an ever vibrant laboratory for daring creators looking in different directions to solve the equation of a simply built, extremely resistant, not too expensive and easy to haul shelter.
Philippe’s obsession with the desert started in 1990. As a young man he had signed up to be on a team that crossed the Sahara desert to bring cars to Niger. At the time it was one of the only ways to get cars into that part of Africa, and the indestructible french cars, with one driver per car, had to cross some of the most dangerous terrain in less than 5 days. At the time civil war was just beginning in Algeria and the lean, mean and fast team had to cross the volatile territory as well as the dead zone in the Sahara. If your car broke down you were on your own and only the most daring people would attempt this trip. Philippe did this trip 3 times that year, until the civil war in Algeria made it utterly impossible to pass. And thus began his fascination with the desert.
The Temple of Transition
A year later Philippe left France to improve his english at Berkley, and he saw a picture of a large wooden structure in the middle of a barren landscape. He had no idea what it was, but the image stuck in his head. He wondered in what desert in the world people would be building structures like that. Four years later while in San Fransisco he saw a flyer with the same image and bought a ticket on the spot. With no idea of what he was getting into, Philippe rented a car and drove to the middle of nowhere to begin the start of what would end up becoming his yearly pilgrimage.
Illumination Village
In those days, Black Rock City wasn’t nearly as popular or regulated as it is now. The internet hadn’t yet caught on and you couldn’t just google what you were getting into. As Philippe drove off the last of the real road and into desert territory, he saw a man emerging out of the dust. Unlike today, there were no road signs or barriers. The guy told him to drive 10 miles straight ahead, then take a right turn, then drive another 4 miles. And then Philippe drove off into the playa, into the dust, with the sudden knowledge that he was driving back into barrenness. And he had only brought a couple bags of potato chips.
The Lost Tea Party
Then suddenly he saw some tents emerging. It was an almost barren desert with campers here and there. At the time there were no barriers or trash fence, and due to the loud music of some of the campers arriving he decided to make his camp miles away from the centre of the city.
Tectonic and Friends
He had thought was ready for the desert life, but really fast he realized the difference. Unlike driving through the Sahara was no longer moving. There was no airflow from the car, no movement. Here he was static, and suddenly realized that he was not at all prepared for that. He had a couple water bottles, two bags of potato chips, no bike, unreliable shoes. At the time it was more of a long weekend, and he spent the next 3 days surviving.
Liquid Sky Camp
At the end of the weekend when he “escaped” the desert he said “oh my god, I made it alive.” Driving back to San Fran with a car filled with dust he decided that next year he would come back and do it better. In retrospect he says, “It was the best year.”
Kostume Kult
Thus began the yearly pilgrimage. Step by step, year after year he set about improving his living condition. With no internet forums like there are today the improvements had to be figured out all by himself. Every summer he was taking camping supplies and improving upon them. Had no idea how to build something and this is how he got into this architectural quest.
Red Lightning Camp
With this new obsession of learning how to build he decided to document what other builders were doing and making. He began to take pictures of random camps so that he could see how others were doing it. He soon had hundreds of pictures of the original architecture of hundreds of different building styles and ideas.
The Pallet Palace
In 2004 Steven Raspa told him that he should keep focusing on the typology of shelters. The majority of photographers at the Burn focus on portraits or the art on the playa, but almost no one takes pictures of the structures of the actual city. It’s the diversity of the city that makes it amazing, and he should keep focusing on the designers that are building something different.
The Chiton
By 2007 he had started his blog as a meeting point for people to see and discuss building their spaces. So many of the other burner forums were scattered and unfocused and he wanted to create a place where people could learn and discuss how to do shelters better. All year he would blog, getting ideas ready to test on the playa. And then for two weeks a year he would roam Black Rock City streets looking for new ideas and meetings designers.
Celtic Chaos
And that’s when he met us. In 2013 he saw a bright structure that was different from something he’d seen every other year. So right away he came to find the designers. Since that time we’ve been touching base, thrilled to find someone else who shared our obsession with structures and design.
Michael of Archimedes Design, 2014
By 2010 Philippe had 10-15 years of BRC images. While back in France for a New Years Eve party over too much wine, a friend dared him to make a book within the year. And so the first version of The Ephemeral Architecture of Burning Manwas born. Over that year on a shoestring budget he worked with a designer to make this initial release, but the work wasn’t up to the standard he wanted it to be. Due to the short timeline and small budget the book had mistakes in layout and captions, and forgot to mention a lot of things that needed addressing. The translations from French weren’t great and the designer didn’t know how to work with US design standards. Despite all this though, the book was a hit. And when he was down to his last few copies of the printing, Philippe vowed to make a better version.
With a better design, %100 accurate data, better images, more pages, a good cover and a flow to the book, Philippe had finally created his very own guide for how to build a shelter on the playa. For virgins or veterans, it was something you could use to improve your Black Rock City experience. With a large network of people who follow his blog, several good write ups and a design award in Graphic Design USA, he hoped that he would soon be able to sell this book out as well. But much to his surprise, it was a bust. Slow sales, slow interest, it was entirely unexpected.
Camp Do More Now
When I asked him why he thought this was, he immediately went into the changes that he’s seen at Black Rock over the years. The stats for the playa these days is that 40% of yearly attendees are virgins. 70% have only started coming in the last 3-4 years, making a population that is relativity new, and sometimes seems more interested in having a good time than in the building or creation. They don’t have too much time to get lost in the city, but the main point of interest is the playa. Because of the photos online it’s becoming a bucket list item for a lot of people. More and more people want to go there, party, say they had that experience.
Camp Reiki
Phillips makes a comparison of the pictures of the first years. In the early 90’s people came with cars, tents, old school RVs in bad shape and built the majority of their structures. Most people were building their shelter from scratch. There were not a lot of RVs or campers. Now there’s a trend towards having giant RVs because it’s the easiest way to do it. It seems that people are desiring to do less work, be more comfortable. In photos from the last few years there are thousands and thousands of these pre-made structures. This year Philippe said that it was a struggle to take pictures of camps and new designs, and that even the new structures were surrounded by campers.
Circus Combustus
Every single year for the last 15 Philippe has camped in the exact same spot as his own little performance piece. His camp footprint always staying the same, while the city eternally changed around him. But recently, instead of interesting new creations, he has been backed on all sides by RVs.
Cloud Extruded
For Philippe, this is an end of an era. He has decided to finish
by December 15th, and end this quest of documenting the ephemeral architecture of Burning Man.
Institute Village
We never know where the cultural evolution of Black Rock may head, that’s part of what makes it so great. But for all of us who make our life about the building and exploration of new structures, the end of this pillar’s quest is sad one.
Thank you so much to Philippe Glade for all your years of service and contributions. Your vision will be missed. Please head to his website to
of The Ephemeral Architecture of Burning Man before December 15th.
