The first image has an interesting story. For the longest time, all Pip had was a crummy black-and-white censored version. He didn’t know what it was from, only that it was from a festival of some kind. He has a vague memory of the controversy over the image when it happened. At the time, he managed to scrape up that image somewhere and he held onto it for a long time. He had considered deleting it several times because he didn’t hold out much hope of identifying it and finding a decent version of it. A couple of days ago on a whim, he decided to Google Lincoln Clarkes’ name and found he finally has a website up. This is a new development because he checked many times over the years and has never found anything. As it turns out, the image comes from a series of women shot at the 1999 Burning Man festival. Pip feels he learned a lesson there, “never delete anything cool that you’re trying to find a better version of, because you never know when you might find what you’re looking for.”
Lincoln Clarkes – From series ‘Burning Man Women’ (1999)
The other Clarkes image is of Canadian entertainer Sheila McCarthy. Although the child isn’t identified, it has to be one of her two daughters, Mackenzie or Drew.
Lincoln Clarkes – Sheila McCarthy at home, Ontario, Canada (1990)
Climate change has certainly taken its toll in the 24 years since the Burning Man Festival image was taken in 1999.
When I heard about the current situation, with everybody stranded there for now because a deluge of rain has turned the sand into mud, I was instantly reminded of this Burning Man picture.