Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Artist #1 - Nancy Burson
After the reading we were assigned I was interested most in the work created by Nancy Burson because I have always loved the straight forward nature of photographs, typically what you see is what you get, but Burson is an artist who challenged the previous ideas of photographs expressing the truth. she produced her images with the use of digital manipulation. She also introduced the technology that age enhances the human face which helps law enforcement officials locate missing children and adults. Her early work includes composite silver prints of morphed images created on the computer
Businessman (10 businessmen from Goldman Sachs) 1982

Cat and Dog 1983

Human Race Machine
one of Nancy Burson's most famous works is a public artwork that was digitally created called the "Human Race Machine" (advertisement poster seen below). The quote "There's No Gene For Race" is the main text and it was originally created with the intent to discuss the issues of race and ethnicity. She wanted to acknowledge that race is not genetic, but socially influenced. The machine allows people to view themselves as a different race. This project was found around college campuses and in large museums around the globe. 

Her work has been found in museums all around the world including the MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum and the Whitney Museum in New York City as well as some in London, Paris, Washington DC,  etc. Nancy has also had guest spots on Oprah, CNN, Good Morning America and other popular tv shows.

Works Cited:http://nancyburson.com/

2 comments:

  1. I find it so interesting how so many faces mashed up into one photo doesn't look more distorted. It seems as though all of these men working at the firm were clones of each other or related in some way. Same with the cat/dog image above.

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  2. I really like the way Burson integrates messages of race and ethnicity into her different races images, in a way that sort of breaks down the barriers that racial identity plays in American culture, but also shows how those strict divisions are still a component of our society.

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