Photograph by Perry Julien
Burning Man is celebrating its 40th year of creating community and art in the southwest desert, and local photographer Perry Julien has attended 10 of those years. Since 2014, Julien, who shoots concerts for Atlanta magazine, has been to the festival almost annually as part of a local group (or “theme camp” in Burning Man terms) that cooks for fellow Burners. When he wasn’t helping prep meals, he took his camera around the camp and captured hundreds of thousands of photos. Now, 205 of those photos are showcased in his new book, It Was Better Next Year.
“People think of Burning Man as some type of drug-fueled naked romp in the desert, but it’s more of an art festival,” Julien says. “The artwork there is mindblowing and created just for the festival.”
Photograph by Perry Julien
The book is more than just a chronological snapshot of Julien’s burning years—it takes a unique structure of the seven chakras, the energy centers of the body in Buddhism and Hinduism. The inspiration came from a kismet encounter Julien had at the festival in 2022. It was early in the morning, and Julien and his wife were exploring an installation of seven huge quartz crystals when a man with long flowing hair biked by and stopped to chat. He was one of the artists, and Julien wanted to show his appreciation by giving the man mala beads from a recent trip to India—except he just given away his last bracelet. But when he told the man this, he reached into his bag with his own gift. “He pulled out this two-foot necklace of the same beads I was gifting and said it was his mom’s and he didn’t know what he was going to do with it, but he wanted me to have it,” Julien explains. “I was sitting there with tears in my eyes thinking, This isn’t really happening, but we were looking at this chakra art project and I knew I had to structure the book after the chakras. Burning Man often has a synchronicity like that.” The man who inspired the structure turned out to be philosopher Deepak Bansal, and he later agreed to write the opening essay for the book.
Photograph by Perry Julien
Photograph by Perry Julien
Julien worked with a longtime collaborator on his other books, designer Mat Thorne, to narrow down which photos to include from the 1,000 Julien sent him. The results include art installations, fire spinners, and music sets, but the focus is mostly on Julien’s fellow Burners. With the exception of a few photos, Julien got consent for every picture and can tell the story behind it. Burning Man is about community after all, and Julien’s role is to document that connection. “Burning Man really gives you that sense of being in the moment and noticing how much beauty is around us,” he says. “What I want people to feel from this book is [how they would feel being] put in the Burning Man environment, even just for a moment.”
Julien will launch the book at an event at Worthmore Jewelers this Saturday, April 18, from 6 to 9 p.m. with an artist’s talk at 7:30 p.m. Books and special prints will be for sale. All proceeds will be donated to food relief organization GoDharmic and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.
