Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1145256 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

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.

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

About the Author
A core team of 24 produced Drama in the Desert, including video, prose and poetry editors and designers, along with dozens of writers and a total of 70 contributors. Biographic information for each, and for many Burning Man artists, are in the book.

Holly Kreuter knew she was home the moment she stepped foot on the playa at Burning Man 1995. She become a year-round Burning Man staffer and a photographer at the event.

She has collected Burning Man moments - quiet, still and fiery moments - and has felt the urge to piece them together, almost into a single perception. She says "I can't not do this - I have to get it out."

"Many people at Burning Man have the need and desire to express themselves at the event. I spend much of my time on the playa documenting what I'm experiencing while in the midst of the chaos; getting the feel of the event; the intensity of the fire. Many of the images are pure stabs at grabbing the illusion. But as much or more of my work comes after the event; bringing the images to life in show and projects. I have beenpatiently collecting images and sound for 5 years and now is the time to put it all together in a larger mixed media project."

Ms. Kreuter joined the Burning Man organizational team in 1997, and has been a full or part-time member of the staff (now Senior Staff) since that time. Holly is originally from Wisconsin and came to California in 1991. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with double major in Cultural Geography and Journalism. She loves her role as Theme Camp Coordinatrix, and thinks that mapping Theme Camps is a practical application of Cultural Geography. Through the Theme Camp Questionnaires they receive she and Harley DuBois use past project history, the present project proposal and bets on whether the project will be completed while deciding which groups will compliment each other (or at least get along OK) Creating neighborhoods in Black Rock City is her and Harley's game. When not placing Theme Camps, you can often find her with a tripod shooting photographs of Burning Man at Night.

Customer Reviews

Awesome DVD, beautiful book!
This book will take you back to Burning Man but it's the DVD that I want to rave about. Watch it over and over. Beautifully done. A wonderful effort. Thanks to Holly and thanks to Bam Bam!

Full-color visuals and personal memories
Based on the images of Holly Kreuter, Drama In The Desert: The Sights And Sounds Of Burning Man is a book and DVD set collecting full-color visuals and personal memories drawn from the harsh desert of Black Rock City, Nevada. Capturing the sometimes quizzical, sometimes cruel, sometimes dramatic art and documentary efforts of seventy contributors, Drama In The Desert is strongly recommended as an eclectic, unique, and vibrant experience impressing its fiery artistic message upon the reader's spirit.

So great I bought 7 copies for gifts and one for myself!
I bought your book for my son's 22nd birthday. He loved the book so much that I bought myself a copy. Last weekend I watched the DVD and was amazed at how beautiful the photography and music is. I went to Burning Man for the past two years and the experience has completely changed my life. I get inspired by the creativity of all the beautiful people that work so hard to make it the greatest art show in the world. I decided to share my experiences with my relatives this Christmas by sending them all Drama in the Desert as presents, so I ordered another six copies. Thank you for everything. You are an amazing group of artists.