What's this? Book review of Vincent Huang's photo book.

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Impressions: The Burning Man event was started by a man named Larry Harvey in 1986 on a San Francisco beach. It was attended by 20 people to watch an 8-foot-tall wooden figure burn to honor the Summer Solstice. The wooden figure was later dubbed the Burning Man, and the event evolved into a huge art festival.

In the year 2000, the Burning Man figure reached a height of 40 feet, and the event was attended by over 25,000 people in a vast Nevada desert where they built a temporary community dubbed Black Rock City. The event lasts for 8 days in late August (Labor Day weekend).

The community is dedicated to "radical self-reliance and radical self-expression." No spectators are allowed. You must participate as an artist. Participants must bring their own food, water, and shelter and survival kit geared for the desert where it can be burning hot during the day or freezing cold at night. Sandstorms and rain that transforn the ground to mud are also common. Judging from the photos in this book, all kinds of people and "artists" (if you can call them that) converge on the desert for an unreal communal existence.

There are art cars, which are vehicles lavishly decorated with art, often in bizarre ways. Then you see artsy bicycles (an essential item), body painting, sculpture, etc., etc. And there's no such thing as indecent exposure because a lot of men and women are topless or totally naked.

See the photographer's Web site for a good number of sample photos from the book. Click on "Burning Man." Also see the Burning Man Web site.

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