Afrika Burn 2016 with the Fujifilm XT1

Afrika Burn 2016 with the Fujifilm XT1

Afrika Burn is a yearly festival which is held in the Karoo desert in South Africa and could be likened to a giant playground for adults. It is a space to dance under the stars, ride around on bikes, dress as your inner diva, give gifts to strangers, look at art and have a ride in a mutant vehicle. It is also a place where the values of every day life are left at the door and people are encouraged to serve those around them for the sake of it. There is nothing that can be bought or sold at Afrika Burn other than ice. There are no adverts or expectations … Just a safe space to find yourself, loose yourself and be yourself.

At Afrika Burn I am constantly torn between feeling the need to shoot absolutely every single last thing that passes before my eyes and feeling the need to put my camera down and be truly immersed in the moment. I think that most photographers feel this internal struggle. Riaan and I weren’t going to go this year but the FOMO got to me in the end and we decided to fly down at the last minute for the weekend. Because we had such a short time this year Fujifilm kindly loaned me their XT1 mirrorless camera to play with. Thank you so much to Hein for being so incredibly generous. I will tell you more about this in another blog post. Also huge thanks to my sister Lisa and her husband Ty for lending us all the camping gear! We couldn’t have done it without you!

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Afrika Burn 2015

Afrika Burn 2015

My plan for Afrika Burn was to shoot the living daylights out of it. I actually planned to shoot the daylights, the nightlights and everything else in between. But Afrika Burn had other plans for me, so these pictures are a story within a chapter of my Afrika Burn experience. This year was my second Burn, and I can tell you that there will be more stories and more chapters as we are already thinking of next year. It hooks you like that!

For those of you who haven’t heard about Afrika Burn, it is an arts festival that could be described as Africa’s version of Burning Man, and it happens once a year in the desert in the Tankwa Karoo National Park. Thousands of people come together to form a community that celebrates love, life, self-expression and creativity. It’s a place where you can be your inner unicorn and not be judged, a place where there is nothing to be bought or sold, a place where you can dance naked under the stars if that is really what you can do, or you can just sit and watch the sheer whimsy and delight of it all! It is an artist’s paradise, a safe space for the inner child to run free and for the adult to learn that society could be better if we all practiced more kindness, generosity and sense of community.

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