So deeply embedded is our experience of the visual
world with what we see from the moment of birth, that
vision never was and never will be a mechanistic pro-
cess of recording reality ‘just as it is.’ This is particu-
larly true when it comes to faces. According to studies,
within the first five seconds of meeting someone, we
make up our minds about a person’s character and
moral nature based largely on how we see his face.
(Burson and McDermott 1993, n.p.)Burson echoes this notion in her claim that her
faces are mirrors for the viewer, reflecting one’s pro-
jections and ideas in sometimes startling ways. The
untitledserieswasmadewithaplasticDianacamera,
a simple child’s camera that results in square nega-
tivesandblurryimages,asapertureandfocuscannot
be manipulated. These snapshot images communi-
cate a poignancy and beauty that brazenly confronts
the taboo of looking at the ‘‘other’’ among us. Bur-
son’s images of sufferers of Apert syndrome do not
shyawayfromtherealityofhersubjects’deformities,
but they also do not fetishize them. Rather, these
images reflect a warmth and tenderness without
resorting to sentimentalizing or editorializing. The
hazy gray tones, close-up point of view, tight crop-
ping, and seemingly haphazard compositions endow
these pictures with an air of mystery and surrealism
while also capturing the everyday or snapshot
aesthetic. She followed this series in 1994–1995 with
24 20-inch color Polaroids of faces altered by can-
cer, reconstructive surgery, and prosthetics.
Since 1996 Burson has created photographs that
echo her investigations into science and technol-
ogy, often returning to the computer-generated
image. In 1997–1998 she photographed androgy-
nous men and women in a series calledHe/She. The
sex of the sitter is not made clear to the viewer (all
of the Polaroids are untitled) as Burson specifically
sought faces that blurred conventionally masculine
and feminine features. Burson writes
My goal is to emphasize the commonality of people
rather than their differences or separateness....the series
intentionally challenges the individual’s notion of self-
perception, by allowing viewers to see beyond super-
ficial sexual differences to our common humanity.
(Artist’s Statement 2004)
The artist’s focus on universality and humanity
more closely aligns her work with modern (rather
than postmodern) theories of the self. In addition,
theHe/Sheportraits do not present these ideas in
any didactic way, but rather function on a purely
aesthetic level.
As part of a series titledPictures of Health, Bur-
son teamed with Russian scientist Konstantin Kor-
otkov in 2000 to photograph the ‘‘aura’’ emitted
through a person’s fingertips using a Gas Discharge
Visualization camera. The camera—used in Europe
and Russia for diagnostic purposes—records energy
fields, or auras. Two of these works that Burson
describes as ‘‘aural fingerprints,’’ titledThe Differ-
ence Between Negative and Positive ThoughtandThe
Difference Between Love and Anger, were made
from the hands of hands-on healers who generated
a wide range of emotional states within themselves.
Burson then photographically ‘‘mapped’’ a range of
auras based on the emotional temperature, as it
were, of the healer. Other recent, related works
made in collaboration with geneticists at the Na-
tional Cancer Institute include images of healthy
and unhealthy DNA. The images are created as
scanned electron microscope photographs that Bur-
son outputs as Iris prints.LYNNM. Somers-Davis
Seealso:Arbus, Diane; Camera: Diana; Conceptual
Photography; Digital Photography; History of
Photography: the 1980s; ManipulationBiography
Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1948; currently lives and
works in New York City. Raised in the Midwest; studied
painting at Colorado Women’s College in Denver, CO,
1966–1968; subsequently moved to New York, NY. Vis-
iting professor at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA,
and adjunct professor at New York University. Colla-
borated with Creative Time and the Lower Manhattan
Cultural Council completing several important public
art projects including the billboardThere’s No Gene
For Raceand the poster/postcard project Focus on
Peace(2000). TheFocus on Peaceproject distributed
30,000 postcards and 7,000 posters around the site of
the World Trade Center to coincide with the anniversary
of 9/11.Individual Exhibitions
1974 Nancy Burson; Bertha Urdang Gallery, New York,
New York
1977 Nancy Burson; Hal Bromm Gallery, New York, New York
1978 Nancy Burson; C. W. Post College, Long Island Uni-
versity, Brookville, New York
1985 Nancy Burson; International Center of Photography,
New York, New York
Nancy Burson; Institute of Contemporary Art, Bos-
ton, Massachusetts
1986 Nancy Burson; Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia
1987 Nancy Burson; Torino Fotographia, Turin, Italy
1990 Nancy Burson: The Age Machine and Composite
Portraits; M.I.T. List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, traveled to Museum of Contemporary
Photography, Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois;
Jayne H. Baum Gallery, New York, New YorkBURSON, NANCY