Stunning photos from Burning Man 2022

She noted that many people would often refer to 2019’s Burning Man as last year’s event.

“I think this missing gap of time almost felt like it didn’t happen. Someone mentioned it felt like stepping into a time capsule almost,” she added.

Despite it feeling like a return to familiarity for repeat festivalgoers, the reality and emotions from living through the COVID-19 pandemic were also evident as well.

“I’ve done a piece on the [Burning Man] temple before. The temple felt particularly emotion-filled this year, there’s just so many people that passed away, so much that people were trying to let go of and find closure for this year,” she said.

Hu has attended Burning Man for more than a decade. She is part of the festival’s team of documentarians, who capture everything and everybody that makes the interactive art event so special and unique. It’s given her a new perspective on life, contributed to her evolution as a photographer and was even the impetus for her decision to marry her husband.

“It’s just so much fun to go and then be able to have these photos out in the public eye, and have people understand the Burning Man is more than just the crazy party,” Hu explained.

Burning Man’s theme this year was “Waking Dreams: past, present and future visions of our hypnagogic reality.”

“Burning Man just feels like a dream any year,” Hu said. “But I think just being gone for so many years, it felt like a more intense version of a dream because it was like a memory come to life.”

Hu noted this year featured a higher diversity of artwork, much of it smaller in size, that allowed festivalgoers to interact on a more personal level.

“I’ve always felt so inspired by what people are willing to bring out there, whether it’s fashion or art,” she added. “It always blows my mind what people can accomplish.”

This year’s Burning Man also had some of the most extreme weather Hu has ever experienced at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, which included even more extreme hot temperatures and day-long dust storms. The weather created complete white-out conditions, which made moving anywhere difficult.

But she noted that the weather extremes are part of the Burning Man experience.

“In limited quantities, I actually really enjoy the dust, because it just feels kind of cleansing. … There’s so much stimulation, right? It’s like an overstimulated environment that just really limits your focus, and it slows you down. And it helps you enjoy where you are, and helps you meet new people and interact with what’s around you instead of feeling FOMO.”

See more of Hu’s photos below.