A life of travel and following my passions led me to AfrikaBurn a few years ago, many of the principles were natural beliefs of mine, so I felt quite at home, I have participated every year with different builds, volunteered as a ranger, and headed up the photography portfolio, implementing an accreditation scheme and soon to be launched gallery-site..
In 2010 I documented the building of the San Clan but spent more time building than documenting.
in 2011 I was part of a group called ‘Fata Morgana’, and we built the ‘Spinning Twirling Dancers’.
In 2012 I was again with the Fata’s and included in our show were the Boxing Bunnies, the Globe and the T Rex that ran across the desert as the Grand Finale.
In 2013 Fata Morgana joined the Vlam SA Fire Collective for the incredible opening show on Friday night. Fata Morgana adapted and ran Lizzy the T Rex, this time with her being able to run in circles. Lizzy and the Fata Morgana crew will be heading to Burning Man at Black Rock in the USA later this year.
In 2013 The VLAM collective went to Burning Man and performed an hour long show, I was lucky to be part of this, helping in the initial stages of building Lizzy, and then I started documenting everything, primarily on video, I also managed to shoot a number of stills images which can be found on the gallery page.
In 2014 Fata Morgana took a bit of time off but spent 3 weeks building the Ba-katti..
In 2015 Fata Morgana scaled back a bit with InFormula1 the slot car junk track. Unfortunately as I had put my back out I was unable to wander with my ring flash at will, rather I waited outside my camp and called people over.
In-between building and sleeping I manage to get out and wander the Tankwa Town Playa with a ProFoto battery pack and ring-flash, shooting on my Canon 5D MK2. The ring-flash gives the colourful more fashion style of lighting in the images, and I feel a wonderful way to portray the people of Tankwa Town, and for me it is the people that make the place so special alongside the art. Unfortunately this year commitments were large and only a few pictures taken, a video I shot of the Vlam show will be released shortly.
Initially I sent out images to those I could track down but my equipment inspired the name and the website now allows all images available for download but at a small size and resolution to avoid unauthorized copy and publishing.
I am happy to send out higher resolution images without branding, to the individuals in the images, by email request. These are for personal use only.
Copyright Notice
These images are for personal use only, all photographs are the sole intelectual property of Simon O’Callaghan.
All rights reserved and are © 2010-2015 Simon O’Callaghan.
No form of reproduction, or the alteration or manipulation of these image files is authorised unless written usage rights have been obtained and issued by Simon O’Callaghan or for the Penn Station gallery images, by Pete Maltbie and Sian Lloyd, or from the Jan Verboom gallery, by Jan Verboom.
These images are not royalty free and not within the public domain.
Nudity
There are images that include nudity within the galleries, I spoke to all participants in a state of undress advising them that images will be in a public gallery unless they objected, many had no objections, and should anyone have changed their mind please let me know the image number and I will remove any image the individual is not comfortable with. I also have a collection of images that individuals did not want published, if you are one of the individuals in these, please remind me of the circumstances and any clothing or decoration, upon confirmation I will be happy to email you copies.
Fine art
Fine art prints are available and are printed as archival exhibition prints, please get in touch should you be interested.
My thanks go out to the weird, wonderful, beautiful and fun people that I have met, many who have become friends.
Simon O’Callaghan