Burning Man is a week-long gathering devoted to art, creativity and self-expression. It’s held each summer in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. The event is difficult to describe. It’s not quite an art festival, not quite a desert rave, and not quite a social experiment, but something of all three.

I’ve been documenting Burning Man for many years, covering the event on assignment for Rolling Stone, Forbes, CNN and other media outlets. My work has appeared in numerous books, magazines and newspapers.

My images from the event are featured in the book Burning Man: Art on Fire, a collaboration with Jennifer Raiser and Sidney Erthal. A comprehensively revised and expanded edition featuring more than 200 of my photos was recently published by Quarto. In June 2024, the book won two Indie Book Awards, including “Best Coffee Table Book of the Year.”

You’ll find a selection of image galleries below. For more about the project, check out a talk I gave at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, or read some of the press and interviews at the bottom of this page. Thank you for visiting.

The Burning Man Series

This set brings together some of my better-known images from Burning Man taken over the years. It’s tough to narrow down tens of thousands of images to just one or two hundred, so this is a snapshot view. For a deeper dive, have a look at the other sets on this page, or check out the press coverage and interviews in the links below.

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Zozobot, an installation by artist Walker Babington

Burning Man 2024

Burning Man has always been something of a surreal place — an ephemeral playground of whimsical art installations, wacky theme camps, startling art cars and bizarre performance pieces. But this year’s theme, “Curiouser and Curiouser,” raised the level of playful absurdity to new heights. Here are some photo highlights from an enchanting week.

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Burning Man 2023

2023 was the year torrential rains flooded the Black Rock Desert. The news media sensationalized the story, but spirits on the ground remained high and the event carried on. Many said afterwards that it was a uniquely memorable week and one of the best burns ever. Read my live report in Forbes magazine or click below for the complete set of images.

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Gaia, an installation by Marco Cochrane at Burning Man 2022 (Photo by Scott London)

Burning Man 2022

Burning Man 2022 was dominated by intense winds, daylong whiteouts and triple-digit temperatures for much of the week. Equipment failed, activities were canceled, systems broke down, and some left early. While it was wonderful to be back in Black Rock City after two years of Covid-related cancelations, the extreme weather turned out to be a harsh loyalty test for many longtime burners.

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Renegade Burn 2021

In 2021, Burning Man was canceled for the second year in a row due to the pandemic. But thousands of people flocked to the Black Rock Desert anyway for what turned out to be a huge free-form DIY gathering that — even without a wood-and-neon effigy to burn, large-scale art installations or much in the way of infrastructure, planning and organization — felt very much like the real thing.

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(Not) Burning Man 2020

Burning Man was canceled because of the Covid outbreak, but some 3,500 people headed out to the Black Rock Desert anyway. The gathering offered a glimpse of what Burning Man might have been like in the early days before it became a thing. We had theme camps, artworks, mutant vehicles, and sunrise dance parties. But it was all self-organized, and free — no tickets required.

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Burning Man 2019

For all the complaints about Burning Man going mainstream, about it being taken over by the rich and famous, and about it being ruined by Instagram and pesky “influencers,” 2019 turned out to be another banner year in Black Rock City. Along with a record number of art installations, it was a year of breathtaking performances, dreamy sunrise sets, and astonishing burns.

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Burning Man 2018

Every burn is special in its own way. But the consensus seems to be that 2018 was special in almost every way. There was a dramatic increase in the number and quality of the art installations. The playa was teeming with new and amazing art cars. The man and temple burns were spectacular. The people of Black Rock City were beautiful, brilliant and amazing. And the weather was nearly perfect.

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Burning Man 2017

Aside from the record-breaking heat, Burning Man 2017 is best remembered for astonishing art installations like Step Forward, a conceptual art piece featuring a giant teenage girl puppet named Euterpe who walked, talked and interacted with people in real time. Other crowd favorites included the Tree of Ténéré, Ilumina, the Flower Tower, Tara Mechani and the Temple of Gravity.

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Burning Man 2016

We were blessed with beautiful skies and gorgeous light at Burning Man 2016. I devoted much of the week to covering the wacky and wonderful art cars of Burning Man on an assignment for CNN. You’ll find a set of my images along with an interview here: Burning Man’s Mutant Vehicles Eat Dust…and People? (Also check out this piece on Boing Boing for additional photos and commentary.)

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Burning Man 2015

Burning Man 2015 is best remembered for its massive 60-foot man as well as its many world-class art installations, stunning fire performances, startling art cars, burning pianos flying through the air, and more. It was my fourth year covering the event for Rolling Stone. Check out my photos for the magazine here: See Trippy, Surreal Photos From Burning Man 2015. Or follow the link below for the complete set.

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Burning Man 2014

This was my eleventh year at Burning Man and third time covering the event on assignment for Rolling Stone. The magazine published a set of my images featuring “the desert festival’s coolest cars, happiest campers and most mind-blowing art installations.” See Burning Man 2014’s Trippiest Photos. Here’s an expanded set of 100 personal favorites from an all-around great year in Black Rock City.

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Burning Man 2013

2013 was my tenth consecutive year at Burning Man and second year covering the event for Rolling Stone. It was a exhilarating week. But it seemed to fly by too fast and there was simply too much I never got to experience. So it goes. This set brings together 100 favorites from Burning Man 2013. You can also find a collection of my photos at rollingstone.com. They appear in two sets, one focused on The Scene and the other on The People.

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Burning Man 2012

2012 was an excellent year for photography despite several days of gusty winds, dust storms and even rain showers. The play of light and shadow offered up breathtaking views of the Black Rock Desert I’d never seen before. This time out, I shot on assignment for Rolling Stone. In addition to my usual set of 100 images (link below), you’ll find my work for Rolling Stone online here: Magic Mushrooms, Nude Dancers, Wild Infernos and More.

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Burning Man 2011

2011 was a year of massive art installations, hilarious theme camps and incredible performances. But as this set shows, I spent much of the week focused on the people of Black Rock City. My images from 2011 went viral, generating tens of millions of page views in the weeks immediately after the event. It was perhaps more than they deserved, but it reflected the growing influence of social media at the time along with a surge of public interest in Burning Man.

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Burning Man 2010

2010 was a year of memorable art pieces, including Bliss Dance, Megatropolis, the Chiton, Infinitarium, and the Temple of Flux. It was one of epic sunrise sets, outrageous fashion shows, beautiful weddings, an unforgettable silent white procession and a brief but wild thunderstorm. But the highlight for me personally was being hoisted up in a 40-foot boom lift on the night of the burn and looking down on a sea of 50,000 people as the man exploded in flames.

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Burning Man 2009

Attendance was down by over 10 percent in 2009 — a first in the festival’s 23-year history — yet it was an excellent year in every other respect. The art installations, performance pieces, mutant vehicles, and people of Black Rock City were astonishing and brilliant. One of the most memorable moments for me was going up in a private plane just after sunrise one morning and surveying Black Rock City from 10,000 feet up. Surreal.

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Burning Man 2008

My time at Burning Man 2008 lasted just four and a half days and I came home with fewer images than usual. I considered posting a shortened set but eventually decided to go for the usual 100, even though it meant posting some weaker photos. I hope they tell the story of Burning Man 2008, or at least capture something of the raw energy, the bawdy humor, the carefree sexuality, the bad taste, and the sheer outrageous good fun of it all.

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Burning Man 2007

Burning Man 2007 is perhaps best remembered as the year the man burned five days ahead of schedule. As a photographer, I still regard it as one of the best years at the event. The art was massive and spectacular, the people endlessly creative and original, and the skies — thanks to a rare tropical storm — shifting and unpredictable. One day we had a sprinkling of rain followed by a double rainbow that people still speak radiantly about to this day.

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Burning Man 2006

In 2006, I returned to Burning Man with less of the frenzied enthusiasm and outlandish expectations of the previous year. I abandoned the idea of capturing the event in any objective sense, favoring instead an impressionistic approach, one more closely aligned with fine art photography than photojournalism. The goal, I decided, was simply to offer a glimpse of the extraordinary art, the beautiful faces, and the brilliant colors of Black Rock City.

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Burning Man 2005

2005 was my second year at Burning Man. My plan was to create a photoessay — a journalistic piece combining images and text. I came home with about 1,500 photos and a notebook full of remarkable quotes and stories. But as I reviewed the pictures, captions struck me as unnecessary. I asked myself, why not simply let the images speak for themselves? I selected 100 photos, and left it at that. The format seemed to resonate and it’s one I’ve kept to ever since.

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Press & Interviews

Burning Man Diaries: A Report From the Muddy Chaos of 2023 — Forbes Magazine

Scott London: Burning Man — Pocko Times

Meet the ‘Mutant Vehicles’ of Burning Man 2019 — San Francisco Chronicle

This Photographer’s Burning Man Pics Hum with Electric Energy — Uproxx

Burning Man Goes Rogue — Forbes Magazine

A Photographer Delves Into the Dust — Monterey County Weekly

Interview with Scott London — Professional Photographer Magazine

Artsy Autos at Burning Man — CNN

Rolling Stone’s Best Photos of 2015 — Rolling Stone

Absurd Automobile Photography — Trend Hunter

Can Attending Burning Man Change Your Life? — Discovery’s This Happened Here

Burning Man 2014’s Trippiest Photos — Rolling Stone

An Interview with Scott London — Arts Illustrated

Scott London: Burning Man — It’s Nice That