Drama in the Desert: The Sights and Sounds of Burning Man
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Photography & Video
Drama in the Desert: The Sights and Sounds of Burning Man Details
From Publishers Weekly Once a year, perhaps 25,000 people gather to create highly idiosyncratic, often body- and performance-oriented art and to watch a 60-foot wooden man burn. Begun in 1986, when a wooden figure was spontaneously raised and burnt on a San Francisco beach, this informal festival now takes place in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, where supernatural sculptures of light, earth and mesh curl into the sky, and people bike and dance like it's 1967. Burning Man staff member Kreuter has here assembled 286 full-color photos covering five years of the festival, along with writings by 42 Burning Man devotees who seem to be struggling to capture the immensity of the experience: "Go now. Whatever it is/ that you long for is waiting for you/ Right now." The photos document a seemingly stranded phone booth and mailbox, a living room tableaux of '50s-style crash-test dummies with the familiar plea to "kill your television," futuristically body-painted revelers, various large-scale figures on fire and phallic outcroppings in twilight. An enclosed DVD includes a 74-minute "feature presentation," eight interviews with artists and organizers and a 560-image "slide show." It may simply be the limitations of the two media employed here that leaves an "I guess you had to be there" feeling; Eggers's foreword urges, "Go and set up your tent." While it probably doesn't herald the dawning of a new age, this book should do well in alternative culture outlets. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more Review "Impressive collection... a giant testament to this weird and wonderful gathering." -- San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, November 17, 2002 Read more From the Inside Flap "The art of Burning Man is pervasive, immediate and immersive. The intense emotional experiences had by many on the playa are played out in the midst of the art, often resulting in profound personal connections to the installations. All are invited to touch and to climb, to live in and on and around the art. There's nothing distant or detached about this work. Drama in the Desert: The Sights and Sounds of Burning Man presents a wide range of experiences by its many writers and video contributors. Holly's photographs capture the unique intensity and emotion of the art at Burning Man. She's there, she's in it, and she makes you feel that you are, too." -LadyBee Art Curator, Burning Man "Burning Man is, among other things, one of the greatest art events in the world. So great that it's notoriously difficult to convey on film, in photographs or in words. This makes Holly Kreuter's Drama in the Desert even more remarkable: a beautiful, lovingly-produced record of - and tribute to - the boundless creativity that converges there each year. An authentic expression and extension of the Black Rock ethic, it also provides an inspirational answer to the question that torments many Burners: how to change a site-specific, one-week-a-year experience into something enduring and permanent." -Geoff Dyer author of But Beautiful, Out of Sheer Rage, Paris Trance and other books "Burning Man provides in abundance so many vital resources that seem to have drained from the rest of the world lately: Art. Fun. Community. Danger. Love. Sharing. Fire. Responsibility. Ingenuity. Sex. Poetry. Imagination. Whimsy. Music. Sharing. Magic. It's impossible to capture in words and images, but Drama In The Desert comes close. Read this book. Watch the DVD. Then gather a few friends, open your minds, and start planning your expedition." -Howard Rheingold author of The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution, Tools for Thought: The History and Future of Mind-Expanding Technology, and The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog Read more
Reviews
The pictures in this book were disappointing, so I returned it. The narrative re: Burning Man seemed somewhat interesting (I read a couple of pages); however, that wasn't enough to motivate me to keep the book.