By focusing on habitat annihilation, Will Roger challenges the traditional framework of climate change, urging readers to confront the full consequences of human activity—not just climate shifts but the systematic destruction of the habitats that sustain all life.
Read MoreThe Secret Art History of Burning Man →
The Art Angle Podcast: The Secret Art History of Burning Man
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Andrew Goldstein, Editor-In-Chief of Artnet News, and his podcast, The Art Angle. Truly, an informative interview whereby I share the rich history of those early days at Burning Man and how the event has evolved over time.
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Today, practically everyone on earth knows about Burning Man, the countercultural extravaganza that draws tens of thousands of true believers to a barren landscape in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert every August to create a temporary city full of monumental art installations and mind-expanding experiences. But far fewer people know that this zeitgeist-shaping powerhouse was created by a small group of artists in the California Bay Area as an ad hoc beach party with a few big ideas under the surface—and one very important cobbled-together sculpture going up in flames at its end.
One person who knows the story intimately is Will Roger, a photographer and professor who long ago left the East Coast in search of more creative freedom out West. Roger was introduced to the earliest champions of Burning Man in the early 1990s, and a life-changing trip to the desert convinced him to join their ranks. His role became to grow the annual celebration by managing the design, construction, and demolition of its increasingly complex infrastructure year after year.
In 2019, Roger published an impressive book titled Compass of the Ephemeral featuring his aerial photographs of the surreal city plans he oversaw and essays about Burning Man’s surprising connections to art history. On this week’s episode of the Art Angle, Roger joins Andrew Goldstein to discuss the festival’s stunning evolution, its impact on the fine-art establishment, and its future at a time when mass gatherings seem as fantastical as the towering marionettes and desert-roving pirate ships that enlivened some of its past editions. > Listen
2019
Fly Ranch and the Land Art Generator Initiative →
Here is a project that is near and dear to my heart: Fly Ranch, an otherworldly oasis in the desert. Water, wildlife, wonder, responsibility, and possibility.
In this episode of Burning Man Live, Zac Cirivello manages Fly Ranch in Nevada. He shares about stewarding the majestic and extreme natural sanctuary.
Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry, founding Co-Directors of the Land Art Generator, direct the organization, and challenge artists and engineers - anyone - to design aesthetic and harmonious energy infrastructure for prototyping in the extreme environment of Fly Ranch.
I talk about how “Burning Man” became Black Rock City at Fly Ranch in 1997 - a crucial year in Burning Man's legacy - when its citizens took ownership to the streets. My audio starts at 51:10.
Tune in for many wonderful morsels of information. > Tune In by Clicking This Link
https://flyranch.burningman.org/https://www.lagi2020flyranch.org/
2020
Sunset Salutation: Inside Will Roger’s Spiritual Photographs and Process →
If you need a calming force in your life right now, just head over to Burning Man co-founder Will Roger’s Instagram to marvel at his daily photos of the mountainous sunset near his home in Gerlach, Nevada. Roger used to be an associate professor of photography and even has a book out of aerial photos of Black Rock City called “Compass of the Ephemeral,” so he’s no shabby shooter.
It also turns out that you can’t learn more about these photos without taking a profound detour into Roger’s mindset, rituals, and philosophies. How ironic, then, that a conversation that started with a desire to talk about attractive images ended up as the spiritual and environmental pep talk we need right now.
This interview with Mia Quagliarello for Medium has been edited and condensed for clarity. > Read More
Burning Man : Un Livre de Photos Aériennes Va Retracer L’histoire du Légendaire Festival →
Dans son livre de photographies aériennes inédites, Will Roger, le tout premier directeur des opérations du Burning Man retrace l’histoire de l’un des plus grands festivals du monde.
Will Roger fut le premier directeur des opérations du Burning Man. Ancien chimiste, artiste et, aujourd’hui, membre fondateur du conseil d’administration de la ville nomade de Black Rock City, il publie un livre retraçant en images aériennes l’histoire d’un festival rassemblant, au début des années 1990, seulement quelques milliers de fêtards. En constante évolution, cette grande fête désertique en plein Nevada a subi de larges transformations, à l’image « d’une toile vierge sur laquelle les gens peuvent venir et créer ». S’y réunissent désormais 70 000 âmes. > Read More @ TRAX Magazine
Black Rock City is designed to "sprout out of nothing", says Burning Man co-founder Will Roger →
Burning Man co-founder Will Roger has spent the last 14 years capturing the festival in aerial photographs. As a book of his images is released, he spoke to Dezeen about how they created a pop-up city in the desert.
Compass of the Ephemeral: Aerial Photography of Black Rock City through the Lens of Will Roger, shows how the festival has grown from a small camp into a mini metropolis with a population of 70,000.
"If you look at the pictures in sequence from 2005 to 2018, the most significant thing that you see is that the city has grown in size," Roger told Dezeen. > Read More @ Dezeen
A Man Who Has Attended Burning Man for Decades Captured the Event From His Airplane—See His Stunning Photos Here →
Now, a new book from Will Roger, a Burning Man devotee since 1994, showcases this epic gathering on the playa in stunning aerial photographs, taken on site between 2005 and 2018.
It was Roger’s girlfriend, now his wife, Crimson Rose, who first brought him to Burning Man. “There were about 2,000 attendees that year,” Rogers told artnet News. (By comparison, Burning Man expects as many as 100,000 people to make the trip this year.)
It was the explosive growth of the counter-cultural event that led the couple to get more involved. In the late 1990s, Burning Man had grown to a point where it needed a more structured organizational system if it was going to survive. In 1997, Roger and Rose became part of Burning Man’s core team as cultural co-founders of Black Rock City LLC—it has since transitioned to a nonprofit—with Roger serving as the gathering’s first director of operations. > Read More @ Artnet
Exposed: Q&A with Burning Man Cultural Co-Founder and Aerial Photographer Will Roger →
For the upcoming September 2019 issue of Relix, we spoke with Will Roger, a cultural co-founder of Burning Man who has been with the festival for nearly two decades. Roger recently release a book of aerial photography of Burning Man’s Black Rock City, Compass of the Ephemeral.
“The key words are ‘Burning Man community,’ as compared to what we call the ‘default culture’—the culture we live in outside the event, where people often feel separated from each other,” says Will Roger. “When at Burning Man, the ‘10 Principles,’—[along with] unconditional love and overpowering creativity—are some of the things that make Black Rock City different from the default culture and powerful as a life changer. The culture of Burning Man provides an opportunity to celebrate the world and humanity in an authentic expressed form.”
As a cultural co-founder of Burning Man, an annual weeklong communal gathering in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert in late summer, Roger has been a part of the event for 25 years. He first discovered Burning Man through his life partner and inspiration, Crimson Rose, in 1994; together with several others, they are also co-founders of Black Rock City, LLC, the company that has produced the event for almost 20 years. > Read More @ Relix Magazine
2 Books Explore Evolution of Burning Man Festival →
The Burning Man festival began in 1986 as an intimate, intensely personal gathering on a San Francisco beach. When the latest incarnation of the event begins Sunday in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, running through Sept. 2, tens of thousands of celebrants will gather to celebrate art, music and share in a sense of counterculture reminiscent of the ’60s but totally modern.
How Burning Man got from there to here — and the meaning of it all — is the focus of two recently published books.
“Compass of the Ephemeral: Aerial Photography of Black Rock City through the Lens of Will Roger” (Smallworks, $29.99) features photographs taken by Roger, a Burning Man founder, as well as archival images of festivals over the years. “Radical Ritual: How Burning Man Changed the World” by Neil Shister (Counterpoint, $26) is a telling of the Burning Man story, based in large part on interviews with the festival’s principals.
Roger’s photos turn the Burning Man festival itself into a piece of art. From the air, the half-circle collection of tents and recreational vehicles that make up Black Rock City take on the appearance of a geoglyph, one of those massive designs carved into the ground that can be seen only from the air. Other photos depict Burning Man art installations, poster and ticket designs through the years and other archival visuals, fleshed out with essays about Burning Man history and the festival experience. > Read More @ Las Vegas Review Journal
D’évolution du Burning Man, Entre Véhicules Mutants Et Vues au Drone →
Plus de 30 ans plus tard, 70 000 personnes sont attendues pour l’événement, qui aura lieu du 25 août au 2 septembre cette année. Le photographe Will Roger, "cofondateur culturel" de Burning Man, a documenté l’évolution de ce lieu éphémère, hors du temps, de l’espace et de toute contrainte, dédié à "l’art, à la vie en communauté, à l’anticonsommation et à l’expression personnelle", indique sa maison d'édition Smallwork Press.
Son livre, intitulé Compass of the Ephemeral: Aerial Photography of Black Rock City through the Lens of Will Roger ("Boussole de l’éphémère : photographies aériennes de Black Rock City à travers l’objectif de Will Roger"), réunit des décennies d’images racontant l’événement. > Read More @ Cheese! Konboni
Juxtapoz Magazine Book Review: Compass of the Ephemeral →
Some of us will never understand, but we’re all very curious. Compass of the Ephemeral: Aerial Photography of Black Rock City Through the Lens of Will Roger is a stunning historical travelogue in words and pictures that defines and depicts Black Rock City, as it was conceived, as well as how it continues to regenerate. While the gorgeous pictures present themselves admirably, the accompanying essays, all written with passion and precision, relate history, process, schematics and vision.
In his foreword, Will Roger describes navigating the bureaucratic loops to build “the beautiful serpentine city” in order to create what he simply calls “land art.” William Fox, Director of the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art, lends context in describing the 400 square miles of North America’s largest playa where meager blue light shifts can result in cognitive dissonance (like snow blindness!), a diminishment that “is useful if you’re seeking to un-anchor your normal sense of reality.” Tony Perez-Banuet says of the clock signage and building the city anew every year that the design was “such a damn good one that is simply prevailed.” In conclusion, Roger, a co-founder of Burning Man, recalls the aerial filming that began in 2005, crediting his pilots who helped him show an expansive perspective that truly captures the enduring power of the desert. > Read More @ Juxtapoz Magazine
Seattle Book Review: Compass of the Ephemeral →
The annual Burning Man event and its location in Black Rock City have become icons representing novel creativeness while promoting unrestrained expression. Co-founder of this inspiring phenomenon, Will Rogers has assembled a colorful collection of aerial photographs recording the evolution of this summer site over the past thirteen years starting in 2005. Interspersed within this photographic assemblage are a series of essays describing the objectives of this meeting place, the geology and natural history of the site, some glimpses into the personalities of the founding characters, and ultimately meeting the challenges of fulfilling both the demands of the Department of Public Works and meeting the needs of the escalating number of camping participants. > Read More @ Seattle Book Review
Phace Magazine Book Review: Compass of the Ephemeral →
Firstly I have to say like a lot of people I had heard of Burning Man, even though I never really gave it any attention. Well now! I have! This book has blown me away, the photographs are inspiring and do help in beginning to understand what Burning Man is all about. But wait! I'm really hoping to talk to Will Roger, about Burning Man & about this amazing book!
At this point I have to say a big thanks to Smallworks Press for publishing & getting it right! I've put a small introduction below.
I'm engrossed in my copy! > Read More @ Phace Magazine
Black Rock Desert, Photo by Contributing Photographer Vanessa Franking
The Evolution of Burning Man Captured from the Sky by Will Roger →
One man who is more than acquainted with this incredible temporary city is Nevada artist and Burning Man cultural co-founder Will Roger. Over the past 14 years, he’s photographed the unique, ever-changing cityscape, capturing its transformation from humble roots to the now living, breathing metropolis that supports over 70,000 citizens today. > Read More @ Malestrom
Burning Man : Un Livre Va Répertorier Les Photos Aériennes de Will Roger →
Un titre à rallonge pour un très beau livre. Compass of the Ephemeral : Aerial Photography of Black Rock City Through the Lens of Will Roger sortira le 18 juin prochain. Au travers des yeux du photographe Will Roger, l’objet sera composé de nombreuses photographies du festival mythique, prise depuis le ciel. L’artiste s’est depuis longtemps spécialisé dans les paysages du désert nord-américain. Ce n’est donc pas un hasard qu’il soit également le co-fondateur de ce rassemblement annuel d’environ 75.000 personnes qu’incarne le Burning Man. Pour les moins attentifs, l’évènement se déroule en effet dans le désert de Black Rock, dans le Nevada, depuis bientôt 30 ans. > Read More @ Tsuigi
Drone Photography, Temple Galaxia by Arthur Mamou-Mani
Aerial Photography of Black Rock City Documents the Historical Evolution of Burning Man
Compass of the Ephemeral includes a collection of Will Roger’s photographs chronicling the ever-changing cityscape and transformation of Black Rock City, home to Burning Man and one of the harshest climates in the continental U.S. The book traces the history and transition of Black Rock City from a few thousand people in the late 1990s to the growing metropolis required to support over 70,000 citizens today.
‘A BLANK CANVAS’
As the first director of operations of the Burning Man event, Will Roger worked alongside the other five founding board members and all others involved to ensure that Black Rock City becomes a reality each year and then vanishes without a trace.
He was instrumental in creating numerous foundations for the event; he established the Department of Public Works (DPW), a workforce of volunteers dedicated to building and deconstructing the physical infrastructure of Black Rock City. Will also actualised an FAA approved airport, and conceived traditions such as the Gold Spike Ceremony, a pre-event commemoration for the builders of Black Rock City, as the first stake is placed in the ground to survey and build the future city. > Read More @ My Green Pod
New Photobook Documents Notorious Burning Man
Roger says: “Burning Man is a blank canvas for people to come and create on. Burning Man creates a human empathy, then serendipity and creativity happens. Burning Man is the real world; everything else is the default world. People come away with changed lives and a changed culture because at Burning Man, everyone is human . . . there is no class, no color. You become family: human family, world family, global family.” > Read More @ Fine Books Magazine
Burning Man Festival As Never Seen Before →
The festival’s co-founder, Will Roger, captures the scale of Nevada’s nine-day art celebration using aerial and drone technology. > Read More @ Luxury London
Drone Photography, Temple Galaxia by Arthur Mamou-Mani
Book Release | Compass of the Ephemeral
Co-Founder of Burning Man Documents Evolution of the Physical Space of Burning Man in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert
LAS VEGAS, Sept. 20, 2018 -- Smallworks Press, an independent publishing company specializing in limited edition, exquisitely-printed books focusing on contemporary art and culture, announced today that it has been selected to produce and distribute the highly-anticipated photography collection of Will Roger, a cultural co-founder of Burning Man. What started with a few people burning a human effigy on a San Francisco beach in 1986 has become a global phenomenon with an eight day event of more than 70,000 people and associated Burning Man regional events around the world. The temporary Black Rock City, located 100 miles northwest of Reno in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, is home to Burning Man, a festival dedicated to art, community, anti-consumerism and self-expression. The 2018 festival concluded on Labor Day weekend, Sept. 3.
Compass of the Ephemeral: Aerial Photography of Black Rock City through the Lens of Will Roger is scheduled for release in June 2019. The work includes a substantial collection of Roger’s aerial photos chronicling the ever-changing cityscape and transformation of the temporary Black Rock City – complete with typical city infrastructure – and the innovative Burning Man art installations both of which are created and taken down year after year. The collection also includes interpretive essays by William L. Fox, director of the Nevada Museum of Art’s Center for Art + Environment; Alexei Vranich, American archeologist at the University of California, Berkley; Tony “Coyote” Perez-Banuet, city superintendent of Black Rock City; Crimson Rose, co-founder of Burning Man, and an introduction by Harley K. DuBois, co-founder of Burning Man, exploring the cultural context and impact of the Burning Man festival.
“Burning Man is blank canvas for people to come and create on,” said Roger. “Burning Man creates a human empathy, then serendipity and creativity happens. Burning Man is the real world; everything else is the default world. People come away with changed lives and a changed culture because at Burning Man, everyone is human . . . there is no class, no color. You become family: human family, world family, global family.”
“We could not be more delighted that Will Roger chose Smallworks Press as his official publisher,” said James Stanford, founder and editor. “Since 2006, Smallworks Press has been producing exceptional visual and interpretive works that reflect the interconnectivity of art and community, a vision that Roger has made tangible each year for the past 14 years, by visually documenting the uniqueness of Burning Man and Black Rock City and by his involvement and contributions to the Burning Man culture and infrastructure.”
Roger’s autobiography, In Search of the Common Shaman, also will be released next year by Smallworks Press. The mystical memoir is not just the story of Roger’s life, but it is also a reflection of the universal journey, the shared search for reconnection, and the moment of the “re-wild and re-energization of the divine power that dwells inside us,” as Roger describes it.
His self-exploration is a powerful fusion of methods, ideas, and intentional mindsets seeking to revitalize the magic and mystical energy not only in his life, but within each person. Based upon the microcosm of personal experience, In Search of the Common Shaman explores more universal themes, combining enhanced connectedness, heightened experiences, and the intensified magical wonderment of life on earth.
Roger is a contributor to the current No Spectators: the Art of Burning Man exhibit at the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Among his pieces are aerial photographs of Black Rock City, including the cover photo of Compass of the Ephemeral: Aerial Photography of Black Rock City through the Lens of Will Roger. The exhibit features large-scale installations – the artistic hallmark of Burning Man – and other festival items and runs through Jan. 21, 2019. In conjunction with No Spectators: the Art of Burning Man, Roger was a featured speaker at the Sept. 14 symposium, Radical Inclusion and Tales from the Playa: Talks on Art, Inspiration, and the History of Burning Man. His presentation covered how Burning Man has become an iconic cultural phenomenon in such a short time and what’s behind the development of Black Rock City.
About Will Roger
Will Roger discovered Burning Man in 1994, through his life partner Crimson Rose. Together and with several others, they are co-founders of Black Rock City, LLC, the company that has produced the Burning Man event for nearly 20 years. As a cultural co-founder of Burning Man, Roger also founded and managed the Black Rock City Department of Public Works – a team of several hundred people responsible for pre-event and post-event construction logistics and production. He is the co-founder of the Black Rock Art Foundation, a founding board member of Burning Man Project, and vice-president of Friends of the Black Rock/High Rock. Roger is heavily involved in conservation efforts for the Black Rock Desert, which is the United States’ largest National Conservation Area (NCA), and which is home to the Burning Man event. He served as Chairman of the Sierra Front – North Western Great Basin – Resource Advisory Council (RAC), and is currently a member of the RAC NCA Subgroup. Roger is also an accomplished photographer; and for nearly 20 years, he served at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y., as a photo chemist, administrator, associate professor, and assistant director.
About Smallworks Press
Founded in 2006, Smallworks Press specializes in arts and culture publications and treats each book with a commitment to impeccable production, design and marketing. With more than 100 years of collective experiences, the Smallworks Press team has enjoyed collaborating with a wide-spectrum of artists, authors and talent to create works with beautiful chromatic illustrations and stimulating interpretation with the finest print quality. Smallworks Press has fulfillment thru Midpoint (North America), a subsidiary of Ingram Content Group, and CBL Distribution (United Kingdom). For information, visit www.smallworkspress.com, email info@smallworkspress.com or call 702-577-6592.
Radical Inclusion and Tales from the Playa - Session 2 →
Join SAAM, five of the original founders of Burning Man, artists from No Spectators: the Art of Burning Man, and other Burners for a day of storytelling, short films, and discussions about the history of the event and the important role of art in its culture. For more information, please visit the Cultural Tourism DC Calendar.
By clicking the image below, you will be cued to Will Roger’s Q&A with Megan Miller of Burning Man, as well as many other notable speakers.
