 |
|
Title: Burning Man: Art in the Desert
ISBN: 0810992906
Author:
A. Leo Nash
Publicate Date: 2007-06-01
Publish: 2007-06-01
List Price: $29.95
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Hardcover
 |
|
|
|
|
Amazon Lowest New Price: $11.93
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $5.53
Amazon Merchant Price: $17.97
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Customer Review: |
|
1: Its the art, stupid
So much of the photogprahy of Burning Man is all glitz and surreal glamour, with a big measure of breast often thrown in. Yeah it's a big party with all sorts of wacky and interesting costumes and bright sights, but the real soul of the thing is the making of the art.
Public art is always a gift to its community. The type of art that has grown out there, especially in its scale and ambition, often demands substantial gifts from the community to exist. It is a sublime and outrageous feedback loop, the process and product of which have never been as clearly and deeply represented as in this luminous book.
The inner cover photo of a box of matches full of dust and containing not only matches but burnt stubs, cotter pins and a spring, is one of the most complete and lovely images of the spirit of these brave artists I have ever seen. If you can understand that photo you can probably understand the process of making art out there.
Leo Nash certainly does understand the process. By far the most revealing collection of Burning Man photos ever compiled, as close to a portait of the thing as you are likely to see.
|
2: good photos deep in drivel
I bought the book because I like black and white photos and because my son has attended Burning Man and worked for the corporation that creates the event in 2003. My intention is to give him the book; but, I decided to read the text before sending it off. The intro is long winded drivel (and at the time of this writing, the writer of the introduction has wasted valuable real estate on this product page with some self serving crap from his blog; who wants to wade down the page to get to the real reviews?) and the text by the photog is self indulgent in the style of the "burners." The notion that this event is somehow "spontaneous" is what really makes me laugh. A more apt description would be something on the order of "this is my personal journal and musings on this ongoing "spontaneous" event, plus some photos" The pictures are well made, and the presentation with a slipcover is nicely done, which is what rescues the book.
|
3: Picstures Worth Crying For
I just received this book as a gift. I immediatley sat down and slowly turned each page in amazement of what he has captured. I cried.
|
4: I'm So Buying This Book
This is seriously one of the coolest books I've ever seen in my life. I've never been to Burning Man (wouldn't want to), but these pictures are AMAZING. It might have been worth enduring desert discomfort dust storms and camping just to see the 2996 "Uchronia" structure-- wow.
|
5: An extraordinary view of an indescribable place
Nash is a great photographer, with a clear, timeless vision that you can literally feel. His photographs hold you and keep you looking into them, farther. This is another volume in the work of our best contemporary photographers, and an extraordinary record of art and a place we might never have otherwise seen.
Burning Man is often described as being indescribable, and for good reason. So much of the art created there is ephemeral, lasting just a few days before burning to the ground. An entire city of 30,000 rises, falls, and disappears. To some, it feels like a heartbeat, and to others, a lifetime. To describe it in words is nearly impossible, when so much quickly becomes the elusive memory of memories.
Through Nash's remarkable photographs, we see a decade of visionary work and creativity that physically existed for only a moment. Whether you've been to Burning Man or not, this book will fill you with awe, and longing for the place.
|
|
|
|
|
