#45259, Reclining Figure in Striped Shadow, from the portfolio Dreamers

Since the early 1970s, Burns has photographed friends and acquaintances in her Seattle studio, often in various stages of undress. She generally works with androgynous and gender-nonconforming sitters. Throughout this series, drapery and gestures are arranged in ways that evoke Greco-Roman sculpture.

Burns said of her subjects, “The people I choose to photograph are often those for whom negative or tragically simple attitudes have been formed by the majority of society… In an age of technology and urbanization I am drawn to the boundaries, to people whose existence is self-defined.” Often, Burns uses natural light and shadow to obscure the sitters’ faces and allow them a degree of anonymity.