Draft:Will Roger

Roger first attended Burning Man in 1994, where he met Larry Harvey, one of the event founders. Roger later joined the Burning man leadership and created the Black Rock City Department of Public Works (referred to as the DPW), the volunteer workforce that currently runs Burning Man.{{Cite web |last=Simonson |first=Lily |date=2011-10-27 |title=Working for The Man: Building Burning Man's Infrastructure |url=https://magazine.art21.org/2011/10/27/looking-at-los-angeles-working-for-the-man-building-burning-mans-infrastructure/ |access-date=2024-10-03 |website=Art21 Magazine |language=en-US}} In 1999, Roger, Crimson Rose, Michael Mikel, Marian Goodell, Harley K. Dubois, and Larry Harvey founded Black Rock City LLC for the purpose of formally organizing the annual Burning Man event. The LLC became a subsidiary of the Burning Man Project in 2013{{Cite web |last=Kane |first=Jenny |date=2015-01-29 |title=Tax docs: Burning Man founders sold festival for $276K |url=https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2015/01/29/burning-man-releases-tax-docs-limited-financial-info/22539201/ |access-date=2024-10-03 |website=Reno Gazette Journal |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Redmond |first=Tim |date=2015-02-16 |title=The secrets of Burning Man's money |url=https://48hills.org/2015/02/secrets-burning-mans-money/ |access-date=2024-10-03 |website=48 hills |language=en-US}} and Roger is a member of the Burning Man board of Trustees. He was expelled from the board in 2003{{Cite web |last=Kane |first=Jenny |date=2016-08-11 |title=Burning Man turns 30: The untold lives of Nevada's Burner royalty |url=https://www.rgj.com/story/life/arts/burning-man/2016/08/11/burning-man-turns-30-untold-lives-nevadas-burner-royalty/88065326/ |access-date=2024-09-27 |website=Reno Gazette Journal |language=en-US}} and reinstated at a later date.{{When|date=September 2024}}

In 2014, Roger toured a series of erotic black and white photographs in an exhibition called "Provocative Portraits."{{Cite web |last=X |first=Oliver |date=2014-10-29 |title=Will Roger Peterson, Provocative Portraits at the Sierra Nevada Arts Foundation |url=https://issuu.com/renotahoetonight/docs/november_2014_rtt/17 |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=issuu.com |publisher=Reno Tahoe Tonight |pages=17–21 |language=en}}

Roger takes photographs using a drone during the Burning Man event, one of the few allowed to do so. In 2019, he published a collection of his aerial photography in a book titled Compass of the Ephemeral. The book documents a decade of transformation of empty desert into a city (Black Rock City), and the intersection of art with the environment.{{Cite web |last=Cascone |first=Sarah |date=2019-08-09 |title=A Man Who Has Attended Burning Man for Decades Captured the Event From His Airplane—See His Stunning Photos Here |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/burning-man-aerial-photo-book-1620718 |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Artnet News |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Katz |first=Nancy |date=2018-10-10 |title=Smallworks Press to Publish Book by Burning Man Co-Founder Documenting Evolution of Festival's Physical Space in Nevada's Black Rock Desert |url=https://nevadabusiness.com/2018/10/smallworks-press-to-publish-book-by-burning-man-co-founder-documenting-evolution-of-festivals-physical-space-in-nevadas-black-rock-desert/ |access-date=2024-10-03 |website=Nevada Business Magazine |language=en-US}}

Roger's work is in the collection of the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV.{{Cite web |title=Collections. Will Roger Peterson. |url=https://www.nevadaart.org/art/collections/the-archive/CAE1607/finding-aids/ |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Nevada Museum of Art |language=en}}

Roger serves as the vice president of Friends of Black Rock-High Rock, a conservation group.{{Cite web |last=Roeder |first=Oliver |date=2017-02-08 |title=The Darkest Town In America |url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/darkest-town-in-america/ |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=FiveThirtyEight |language=en-US}} He maintains "the labrynth," a landmark in Gerlach, Nevada, a mile-long maze constructed of thousands of rocks arrayed along the ground (modeled after the Chartres Cathedral labrynth in France). He is a plaintiff in an ongoing lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management concerning the building of a geothermal project in northern Nevada.{{Cite web |last=Jones Thompson |first=Maryann |date=2023-03-13 |title=Burning Man Fights To Save Its New Home in the Old West |url=https://sfstandard.com/2023/03/13/burning-man-gerlach-blm-ormat-lawsuit-geothermal/ |access-date=2024-09-27 |website=The San Francisco Standard |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Conrad |first=Bob |date=2023-04-05 |title=New plaintiffs sign on to lawsuit against BLM over Gerlach geothermal project |url=https://thisisreno.com/2023/04/new-plaintiffs-sign-on-to-lawsuit-against-blm-over-gerlach-geothermal-project/ |access-date=2024-10-03 |website=This Is Reno |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Paul |first=Arielle |date=2023-05-17 |title=Burning Man Becomes Latest Adversary in Geothermal Feud |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/17/business/burning-man-geothermal-plant-nevada.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230517071116/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/17/business/burning-man-geothermal-plant-nevada.html |archive-date=2023-05-17 |access-date=2024-10-03 |website=The New York Times}}

He was married to photographer Marilyn Bridges from 1977 to 1987. In 2012, he married fellow Burning Man co-founder Crimson Rose. They live between Gerlach, Nevada, and Oakland, California.

• Las Vegas Sin City Gallery, "Provocative Portraits" (October 18 – November 1, 2014)
• Sierra Arts Foundation, "Provocative Portraits" (November 4 – 26, 2014)
• Cincinnati Art Museum, "No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man." (April 26 – September 2, 2016){{Cite web |title=First look at Burning Man exhibit at Cincinnati Art Museum |url=https://www.cincinnati.com/picture-gallery/life/2019/04/19/gallery-burning-man-cincinnati-art-museum/3523701002/ |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=The Enquirer |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=CityBeat |title=Everything We Saw at Cincinnati Art Museum's 'No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man' Exhibition |url=https://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/everything-we-saw-at-cincinnati-art-museums-no-spectators-the-art-of-burning-man-exhibition/Slideshow/12234276 |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Cincinnati CityBeat |language=en}}
• Senate Russell Building Rotunda Washington D.C., "Home Means Nevada" (September 26, 2016){{Cite web |title=Home Means Nevada |url=https://www.nvartscouncil.org/programs/artist-services/nti/nti-exhibitions/home-means-nevada/ |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Nevada Arts Council |language=en-US}}
• Nevada Museum of Art, "City of Dust: The Evolution of Burning Man" (July 1 – January 7, 2018){{Cite web |date=2017-06-22 |title=A Long, Strange Trip |url=https://tahoequarterly.com/summer-2017/long-strange-trip |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Tahoe Quarterly |language=en-US}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.willroger.com Will Roger Website]
• [https://themalestrom.com/culture/burning-man-will-roger/ The Evolution of Burning Man - Captured from the Sky by Will Roger]