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Photo Book Reviews

Desert To Dream: A Decade of Burning Man Photography by Barbara Traub (Immedium) One of the most lively and unique annual events in the world, the Burning Man Festival takes place each year in the Nevada desert, where people come to express themselves in nearly every way imaginable.  Photographer Barbara Traub has been documenting the party for over ten years, as seen in Desert to Dream. Article rating: 4.50

Every year for the past decade and a half the Burning Man festival has taken place on the playa of the Black Rock Desert of Nevada which is the largest flat expanse of land in North America.  On the last night of the festival the impromptu city known as Black Rock City watches as the 40 foot effigy of the Man is set a blaze and fireworks are set off.   Photographer and multimedia artist Barbara Traub brings us a decade in photographs of this artistic festival.   Her photographs, a mixture of color and black and white are a chronicle of her decade long attendance at Burning Man. 

Traub's evocative photography displays the human connections established by the attendees with each other, the art they produce and the beautiful landscape of the Nevada desert.   A particular aspect of humanity's capacity for artistry is what Traub brings us.  From the sensitive nude photographs of people in all manner of color and caked in mud to cars retrofitted to be art on wheels and the temporary temples which dot the desert floor.  

There is a black and white photograph of storm clouds with attendees and their vehicles in the foreground in which Traub's camera captures nature's presence at the festival.   The clouds appear in the familiar mushroom shape of a nuclear blast and since this is all taking place in Nevada one wonders if nature's sense of humor isn't a little morbid.    She captures nature's presence again in a color photograph taken at night when the Man effigy is set on fire. Dust devils tower over people in the night sky mid movement as if they were dancers enjoying the festivities. 

Traub's photographs capture where human experience and behavior intersect.  So much of Burning Man is about the participatory and interactivity of art. The Burning Man festival is a place where the surface is the substance.  The surreal and the sublime are on full display.  It is place where you can grab tea with a stranger and share in the experience of being a Burner, as festival goers like to address themselves.   One of the most striking things about Traub's photographs is how the human capacity for art keeps manifesting itself in countless ways. 

In photograph after photograph we witness people fully engages in the artistic process.  Traub captures people in the midst of building temples and painting themselves in all manner of color.   By way of the photography we see how people are art and art is people.  The Burning Man festival is a remarkable example of the transitory nature of human existence.   Before the Burners arrive there is only the desert and after the Burners have left there is only the desert.   When looking through the photographs of "Desert to Dream", we are taken from day to night and there are just as many surreal night shots as those taken during the day. 

There is an aerial photograph showing a cross section of the horse shoe layout of Black Rock City giving one a sense of how large the gathering has become in recent years. Black Rock City is Nevada's fifth largest city for the week it occupies the playa.  It has a newspaper and radio stations.  Artist and people from around the world arrive to add their distinctiveness to Burning Man.  

One of the most arresting black and white photographs taken by Traub is of Michael Christian's sculpture "Flock", in the midst of a dust storm.  The 42' high sculpture made of steel tubes bent into shape and welded together stand like tendrils reaching for each other.  In the photograph the sculpture stands alone with only the white dust as company.   Traub informs us in the caption that, "this piece relates to the experience of being alone and lost in a large overwhelming empty space-a place where you feel compelled to seek out and find your 'flock'-though it seems to find you instead."

The book contains foreword and afterword by Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey.  As well as an epilogue by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and introduction by filmmaker Les Blank. There's a delightful contribution by Leonard Nimoy.  Nimoy's Star Trek character, Spock, has had quite the following at Burning Man over the years.

Traub has been exhibited at venues ranging from the San Francisco Arts Commission, to Cooper Union in New York, to the Museum of Neon Art in Los Angeles, to the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute, and other distinguished places around the world.   Traub's skill with the camera is clearly on display in "Desert to Dream".

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This is eye-popping, feet on the ground, photo-taking. I'm sure there is a smorgasbord of subject ready to be shot there, but it takes a trained eye to cut through the clutter and hone in on the definitive images. Traub's seem to capture the human in the natural in scenes that can be taken out of time. Now I want to go! Posted by: Telefoto Apr 9, 2007 @ 12:18 PM EST

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