After 9 months of work shooting and editing images, writing the essays, working with Burning Man on permissions, learning to write iPhone apps, actually developing the application, and dealing with the insanity of the Apple approval process (see this example of what that is like), my first iPhone App is finally available in the iTunes store!!!

Burning Man 2008: A Photo Essay by Matt Freedman
Think of the app as a coffee table book for the iPhone. It contains over 300 extraordinary Burning Man photos, packaged in an easy-to-use full screen photo viewer:

• View the whole set, or browse by categories (People, Art, Art Cars, The Man, Dust, etc.).
• Mark photos as favorites, for quick retrieval.
• Every image has an informative caption, which can be displayed, or left hidden.
• Slideshow mode, or manual “flick” paging.

In addition to the photographs, you will find essays:

• A foreword, by Marian Goodell, Burning Man’s Director of Business and Communications, explaining what exactly Burning Man is.
• An introduction describing my own personal 10 year journey with Burning Man, along with my views on the evolution of the event.
• My 4000 word Photography at Burning Man how-to guide, which gives you detailed information on how to take better photographs at Burning Man. What gear to bring, how to carry and protect it, when and where to shoot what, and perhaps most importantly, rules and etiquette.
• My own annotated Burning Man packing list. What to pack for your own visit, and why.

You can visit my site to see sample images, excerpts from the essays, and a complete version of the packing list. Or better yet, go directly to the iTunes App Store and get the app. And if you do get it, PLEASE go back to the app store and enter a numerical rating, and if possible, a brief written review. This is absolutely crucial for its success.

Please share this link with anybody and everybody you know who has an iPhone or iPod touch, and/or an interest in Burning Man (if you could post it to your Facebook newsfeed, twitter, etc. that would be great!)…
http://www.silentcolor.com/projects/burningman2008

Burning Man 2008: A Photo Essay by Matt Freedman has been reviewed and approved by the Burning Man Organization, and a portion of the proceeds from every sale goes back to the organization as a contribution to the community it supports.

This weekend was the opening of the Burien Interim Art Space, a year long experiment in temporary art. A developer has lent a piece of land in downtown Burien Washington (just south of Seattle) to be used as a public sculpture park for a year, until it gets built on. The centerpiece of the park is The Passage, a phenomenal sculpture by Dan Das Mann, first created for Burning Man 2005. This is one of my all time favorite pieces of Burning Man art.

My full set of images can be seen at http://imageevent.com/pmattf/misc/burieninterimart, but here are a few highlights. Click on any images to see a larger version…

Firepod doing its thing with The Passage in the background…

The Spinergy fire performance group. To get fire trails like this and still see the performer you need to shoot with slow synchro flash mode. Shutter priority mode can be a good way to go here, so you can vary the length of the exposure to get the amount of trails you want. This one is 1.3 seconds, which is definitely on the long side…

Detail from The Passage…

.

Burning Man in Burien…

Just to give some context, this is The Passage being installed at Burning Man 2005…

And my favorite shot of The Passage from 2005. A 60″x40″ print of this one was hung at the 21 Days of Black Rock City show last summer in Marin County…

I just posted a small gallery of people pictures from Burning Man 2008. These are all images that I would like to include in my upcoming Burning Man 2008 E-Book project, but I need to get their permission first. If you know who any of these people are, please let me know, or have them contact me directly.

The album is http://imageevent.com/pmattf/burningman/burningman2008contactinfoneeded. Here are a few of the images…