Photographer / Creative Director
GalenOakes
Westport, California → Los Angeles
For more than twenty years, Oakes has worked inside music, art and collective experience—moving between portraiture, documentary photography and creative direction.
11consecutive years
2009—2019
20+years across
image + direction
44publication
outlets
Raised in a cabin among the redwoods near Westport on California’s Mendocino Coast, Galen Oakes received his first camera at sixteen. His practice spans artist portraiture, editorial photography, festival documentary work and creative direction, with work published by Billboard, Mixmag, VICE, UPROXX and the Burning Man Journal.
Black Rock City became his longest-running body of work. Oakes first photographed Burning Man in 2009 and returned every year through 2019—eleven consecutive editions. In 2026, he is returning to the playa for the first time since 2019. Decade in the Dust opens that archive: monumental art, private ritual and a city designed to disappear.
galenoakes.com ↗