This year the Man burned twice. The first burn was early Tuesday morning, during the full eclipse of the moon above the playa. My wife Sun and I were out at the Man at 2:30 a.m. to shoot him with the full lunar eclipse behind, when all of a sudden some fireworks went off and the Man was ablaze!

It was very surrealistic, being one of the few there to witness a spectacle designed for 40,000 plus people! I just let the camera roll and caught the chaos and magic of the moment. Comments from the small gathering crowd are quite hilarious!

In the eerie darkness of the full eclipse, I could easily imagine the great druid priests and priestesses of the past saying "NOW!" and the great burn of the Man beginning.

Though I by no means endorse this anarchistic burn, as it could easily have endangered lives, it was, cinematically, quite spectacular, especially the colorful dousing of the man with a deluge of water from several fire hoses towards the end.

This video also incorporates several still shots taken by Kelly Durkin, who was directly beneath the Man when he began to burn.