EP 64 Shadow Shorts #10

Shadow Shorts #10 is out now! Recorded at BRC in 2025 participants were challenged to explain BM‘s impact in 5 minutes or less. Each Shadow Short is one person’s story, please enjoy this short story of how Burning Man has impacted and influenced people over time.

Meet Ivan as he explains his personal evolution as a veteran burner, tracing his journey from a frequent wedding photographer on the playa to his current pursuit of a responsibility-free experience focused on pure enjoyment. Ivan reflects on how the event serves as a "happy place" that fosters a unique sense of community and altruism, noting that the festival's culture has permanently changed his daily habits and social interactions. He shares the lasting impact of the festival's principles on individual character, specifically regarding environmental mindfulness and the instinctual desire to help others in need.

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Transcript

Before we start, I would like to ask your help to do two things. First, tell a friend or two who you think might like the show. And second, please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The more reviews the show gets, the more likely it will even appear in search results. Thank you. And now on to the show. 

They make the trek out to Burning Man for a week and a day. After a lot of work, oh, there's a lot of play. Party party, drama, drama, drama. b****, b****, b****. Year after year, they come back to scratch that itch. They all say their lives have been changed. After many years, lives have been rearranged. That changes what this show is all about. You'll see the impact. of burning up and out. So sit back, relax, and cancel all your plans. These are the stories about the shadow of the man. 

Hello and welcome to the Shadow of the Man Show. I am your host, That Andy. This is a Shadow Shorts episode recorded at Bernie Man 2025. You can tell because of the background sounds. Okay, I have to apologize in advance for the variable sound quality. The microphones are quite sensitive and it picked up some noise from handling and occasionally the speakers allowed the microphone to drift away while speaking. Uh the sound might be more variable than the studio recordings, but the stories are fantastic. Please enjoy. 

Okay. My name is Ivan. I'm from San Francisco. I'm not sure. 19 or 21.

Wow. What was your first year?

96.

Oh, hold it a little closer.

96.

Really? 96. Our our first year too. Yeah. Yeah.

And then I didn't come for I'd say four years

until 99

and then I came back at 2006 2007 and then I missed a year. I missed a year and then I came back and kept coming and then I missed again one year and I missed last year.

Yeah.

So it's here and there.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So what keeps you coming back?

Oh, I call it my happy place.

Really?

Why is that?

I don't know. I'm just happy here.

I just come here and I, you know.

Well, what makes you happy here? The the

the people, the music, the art, the I don't know, the surroundings, the challenges sometimes.

Yeah. you know, even even when it rains or dust storm, I still kind of like it here.

I go like, "God damn it." But I still, you know, love it. So, do you have a group of friends that you go with?

Um, a bunch of friends, actually. I I know a few people who come here well for many, many years. And we have our camp. Um,

yeah. Where do you

We're camping right now. We're camping U 515B camera obscure.

Ah, okay. We used to do weddings until last year and this year we shifted to I think portraits,

but I'm taking a break completely from doing anything this year.

Are you doing as I say you're you're going to Burning Man this year?

Yeah, cuz you know two years ago, well 200, what was it 23? Yeah, 23 I shot so like seven or eight weddings and I didn't even have time to do anything. And people are coming, oh can you do a wedding? Can you do a wedding? I like Yeah. Okay.

And I just, you know, I got tired.

Yeah.

I have to take a break from this and just enjoy.

Yeah.

Hang out.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Yeah. Cuz when sometimes when you have responsibilities, you can't let it, you know, you can't relax.

Yeah.

This time I can do whatever the hell I want to do.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you're taking off completely from your photographer. Yeah. So, no. No photography at all. Your own personal my own personal.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. my own personal, you know,

if I see something I like.

Well, you got to like keep it fresh, right? You gota, you know.

Exactly.

Well, because a part of this whole show, I'm always interested like, you know, what what what is it about Brain Man like why did it keep you coming back, you know? And it's like, and if it was, I guess felt too much like a job, too much work.

Sometimes, you know, sometimes it's hard hard to explain why

you just like something. It's like, why do some people like peaches, some people like tomatoes, you know? It's like Why do you like tomatoes? Well, I just like it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And what about uh when you like after you went to Burning Man 96 and you came home or after all these years like what part of Birdie Man do you like do you do you feel like like filters out into like your your rest of your life?

Um a lot actually. I think I you know I used to all over the place kind of being a pig.

Now I have ashtrays with me all the time at all times in the city. I have a small pocket ashtray. Uh if I can't see, you know, I I used to look for the the garbage can to dispose of the

Yeah.

of the cigarette butt, but there's sometimes there is none and you're like, "Okay, there you go."

Yeah.

And this place kind of taught me that,

you know, I shouldn't do that.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, little things here and there,

like I think being nicer to people, more helpful to people sometimes.

If you see someone like in need, like you'll just like go over and help and Yeah.

Yeah.

Like here, you know, somebody falls off the bike, people keep run to you. I fell off the bike Monday. It's hard to do it on a tricycle, but but I did

and people like, "Oh, yeah." They ran to me like, "Are you okay?"

Yeah. But in the rest of your life, if you fell off a bike, I mean, would a bunch of people run to you?

Probably not. Sometimes. Well, they might. You know, here the percentage of decent people and like good good people a lot higher than out. there.

Mhm.

So, it's uh it's a little bit different here than there. But certain things, you know, they work both here and there and there.

Yeah.

So, you see yourself coming back again next year?

Yep.

Yeah.

Probably going to be coming here until like

Yeah. I think you're going to moderate the uh wedding photography or just be like, I'll only take so many.

No, you know, I I'll I I'll probably do about two or three weddings next year. Uh How about how involved is that for like wedding photography? Like on a

pl it's pretty involved. You know, sometimes people kind of screw you up because we people they sign up

and they go like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." And then they don't show up.

Well, yeah.

And then exactly. And or they will go like, "Oh, can you shoot our wedding? Can you shoot our wedding?" I like, "Okay, what time?" I come there. There's like five photographers there.

I was like,

usually I go like, "Well, guys, thank you very much for inviting, but waste my time.

Exactly.

All right. Well, thank you so much for the interview.

Oh, you're welcome. Thank you for having me.

Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this show, please subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen. The more reviews the show has, the more likely it will even appear in search results. Also, please tell a friend and share this show with anyone that you think might like it. Word of mouth reaches quite far, especially in the Burning Man community. If you would like to contact us, please send an email to Shadow of the Manodcast atgmail.com. You can also follow Shadow of the Man on social media at Facebook, Instagram, Blue Sky, and YouTube. The links for all of these are available at shadowoftheman.com. Feel free to use any of these social media accounts to provide any feedback you might have. Your thoughts on the show are greatly appreciated. Thank you and see you soon for a new episode of The Shadow of the Man. Thank you for listening to this latest show. We have to make another one, so got to go. Don't worry, for next month we already have one. in the can. Very soon you'll be listening to a new shadow of the man.