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| Woody, New York, 1992. Silver gelatin print from Polaroid negative. Courtesy of Lee Hansley Gallery, Raleigh, North Carolina. |
Marsha Burns:
Portrait of America
Also, see Burns's artist statement.
Marsha Burns: Portrait of America will feature 20" x 24" silver gelatin prints from 4" x 5" Polaroid negatives by the West Coast photographer. The first presentation of Burns work in Virginia, Portrait of America documents a segment of the population who live on the boundaries of society.
Burns states, "I am drawn to the boundaries, to people whose existence is self-defined. I look for people who can’t or don’t want to fit." Burns photographic portraits depict her subjects’ struggle to understand their existence in modern society and their own aim to live in an era of urbanization and technology.
Using a formal backdrop in a studio setting, Burns imposes a formality on the photography process and engages her subjects into becoming active participants in all aspects of their photographic portraits. Portrait of America is a celebration of the beauty of the human face. Unique in the "America’ series is visual evidence of the Polaroid process in the finished print that imposes a subtle internal border. For Burns, the perforated edges are another visual indicator of her subject being bound by technology as well as evidence of the photographic process. "There is a fierce integrity present in Burns photographs that is not only in the faces of her subjects but ‘in your face’ as well,’ states Ted Potter, Director of VCU’s Anderson Gallery.
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Ronald, Reno, 1992. Silver
gelatin print from Polaroid negative. Courtesy of Lee Hansley Galley, Raleigh, North Carolina.
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Burns has had numerous solo and group exhibitions including at the Seattle Museum of Art, Seattle, Washington; the Gallery Watari in Tokyo, Japan; and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Menen Belgium. Her work is represented in major collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York; the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; and the San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art, San Francisco, California. The exhibition is courtesy of Lee Hansley Gallery in Raleigh, North Carolina.
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