--- title: An Iconic Photo of Burning Man | TIME description: In 1994, Barbara Traub first photographed the effigy of a man set ablaze every year at Burning Man. Her first shots became the image on her book cover canonical: https://time.com/video/I3M2BcvQ/ og:title: An Iconic Photo of Burning Man og:description: In 1994, Barbara Traub first photographed the effigy of a man set ablaze every year at Burning Man. Her first shots became the image on her book cover og:url: https://time.com/video/I3M2BcvQ/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/I3M2BcvQ/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: An Iconic Photo of Burning Man twitter:description: In 1994, Barbara Traub first photographed the effigy of a man set ablaze every year at Burning Man. Her first shots became the image on her book cover twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/I3M2BcvQ/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # An Iconic Photo of Burning Man > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: An Iconic Photo of Burning Man [Watch (HLS stream): An Iconic Photo of Burning Man](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/I3M2BcvQ.m3u8) (3:38)  _Published 2011-02-10. In 1994, Barbara Traub first photographed the effigy of a man set ablaze every year at Burning Man. Her first shots became the image on her book cover_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:09 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Burning Man Camp Attacked By Vandals](/video/LdHdR6q7/) ### Burning Man Camp Attacked By Vandals [Behind the Iconic Tank Man Photo](/video/9ktJjcpE/) ### Behind the Iconic Tank Man Photo [Fireworks and Flames as Burning Man Burns](/video/AllQWrQD/) ### Fireworks and Flames as Burning Man Burns --- ## Transcript >> Burning Man, it's found me as much as I found it. I moved to San Francisco in '94 from Baltimore, and I found a flyer for Burning Man in this Black Rock Desert, where I just have had been on a photo shoot. With this amazing, kind of lunar- like surface, cracked playa, natural hot springs, I felt while I was looking for a new project to photograph, having just moved out here and it seemed like, pretty-- pretty ideal. And I remember arriving, it was late in the afternoon, and a storm was approaching the playa. It was kind of, the sky was kind of like, this Prussian blue like color and the shadow of the man was stretched out along the playa with just this black speaker box, and a bunch of dust in the distance being kicked up by a car. I was shooting with my Leica rangefinder and I had one body loaded with color, and the-- another with black and white. So, I shot pretty much the same photo that made it on the cover of my book, Desert to Dream: A Decade of Burning Man Photography. So, that was-- that was just a mind blowing like, boom, just kind of like parachuting into this whole other realm, this dreamscape, and I felt it right away. I have arrived. What began as a scene or a happening has now become a city, Black Rock city. I love that golden hour, the late afternoon when the shadows are very long, and the light is really warm, and softens up. Well, we're in a white, what's called the white- out, so the man's behind me-- But guess what, you can't really see him so, but I'm in day glow so maybe, I stand out a little bit more. >> How often is the weather like this? >> You know, it's been-- it seems like it's been a lot dustier the past few years due to more drought conditions over the winter, so it doesn't rain as much. Therefore, the playa doesn't pat down as much and hence, more dust. It's all about just letting everything fall into place. The decisive moment, the composition, and being able to predict, you know, that moment when it's gonna happen. 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