After several years of documenting our collaborative projects built, installed and in some cases performed at The Burning Man Festival between 2000 and 2007, I have honed in upon my favorite subject matter of live performances, then second, photographing art. Most work is live music performance, some live dance, and last but not least, photographing a vast performance-underground including fire spinners, arial silk performers, hoopers, burlesque, dance, street pageantry, sideshow acts and much more. I endeavor to never interrupt the performance or the audience's experience while driven to get that once-in-a-lifetime photo. In this case, I measure my success by conveying the creativity of musicians making music, passion in the moment, the artist's inspiration and finally, spontaneity on stage. These four attributes are often caught by snapping when the eyes have that certain twinkle, during musical crescendos, immersed facial expressions, non-verbal communication between band members, and stolen moments with the audience. My first body of work back in 2011 was culling out the best of 500 concert images scanned from slides and negatives dating back to 1978 through 1986 titled Fast Fame. This helped bring closure to an undefined pasts freeing me to moving forward into new ground. Occasionally I'm inspired to produce short videos, but truthfully my first love is that frozen artifact, the still image. Currently, from distance past to recent work, I have photographed over 2,000 live music concerts, sixteen consecutive Burning Man festivals, numerous music festivals, international puppetry, scores of dance performances and many fringe events. Thank you for entering my world of imagery. I hope you enjoy it. Philamonjaro
Chicago, IL 2021
