In this paper, I will present a brief introduction to the American artist Nancy Burson, who is best known for transforming our ideologies about identity with her Nancy Burson was born in 1948, grew up in St Louis, and at the age of twenty attended Colorado Women's University to study painting. After only two years in Denver Colorado, Nancy decided to move to New York to expand her career in New York. Although Nancy Burson was a talented painter, she also had a strong interest in science, technology, and the late 1960's media, which was known for changing the public's opinion with the use of dynamic imagery through photography. While living in New York Nancy Burson became involved in the 1970's art and technology movement, and according to art historian Robert Atkins Nancy discovered one of her biggest influences, Edward Kienholz's and his 1968 sculpture known as "A Friendly Gray Computer".
In "Nancy Burson: Making Faces" Atkins notes that this artistic display of art and technology inspired Nancy to search for a way to alter pre conceived ideas about identity and was the reason she joined the program EAT which paired artists with scientists in the technology department of MIT (Atkins). As time passes Nancy Burson becomes more than just an artist with her invention of the human race machine, her contribution to the FBI, and her time spent as and educator, book author, and healer.
Nancy Burson created intriguing works of art ranging from one end to the spectrum to the other with her subject always being the human face. In the early stages of her career, Nacncy focused on creating composite photographs, which is basically a layering technique used in photography. As time passes, it becomes harder to describe and fully understand how Nancy creates her work; the outcome...