Best of Afrika Burn 2014-2017

Best of Afrika Burn 2014-2017

This time last year I was frantically trying to finish up work in between burning myself with a glue gun in an effort to make flower crowns and party clothes! Yip its that time just before Afrika Burn again, except this year we aren’t going! In case you don’t know what Afrika Burn is, it is an arts and music festival that happens once a year in the Tankwa National Park in the Karoo. We did four years in a row and decided to take a break this year but now that the time is nearing there is a tinge of FOMO setting in. I will miss dancing in the desert, donning sequence in the dust and flitting around on my bike while bedecked with a mermaid crown. There is a surprise around every corner at Afrika Burn and so many interesting people to meet. It is a place for artists, dreamers, dancers and givers; a giant playground for adults and a treat for the eyes. Afrika Burn is well and truly a photographers paradise and a delight for the inner child! Just have a look through these photos and you will see a land unlike any other! Here’s my Best of Afrika Burn pics 2014-2017.

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Afrika Burn 2017

Afrika Burn 2017

2017 was the year that saw us travel to the Karoo for our fourth Afrika Burn and it is also the year that I turned 40 years old!

I am going to be straight up with you here …… I had a rather tough Afrika Burn experience this year as I just wasn’t feeling myself and this culminated into what felt like one of the worst times of my life! Yip I got the dreaded noro virus which did its rounds at Afrika Burn this year. Being in the middle of the desert without running water is not a place to get so violently ill. Climbing out of a roof top tent and crawling to the nearest porta loo in the middle of the night on many many occasions was not fun. I won’t speak too much about the state of the porta loos other than the fact that I wasn’t the only one who was sick at the time! But I survived and in between the not so nice bits I found magic.

Here is a tiny glimpse into that magic!

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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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Time for time out ……

Time for time out ……

I believe that creative souls need to tap out sometimes to re-inspire themselves to make new work. The beginning of this year started off with a bang and we have hardly stopped running since. Luckily for me I had the foresight last year to block off some time for personal work this year, and now it is time for an adventure around South Africa! I am so excited for the space and time to breathe, to see and to be in a moment. I am also so excited to play with my camera and shoot just for me! Here are some pics from my last mission to the Karoo, they are exactly what I need right now.

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