--- title: The Story Behind TIME's Trump and Putin 'Summit' Cover description: Visual artist Nancy Burson merged their faces to help readers “stop and think” when it comes to similarities between the leaders. canonical: https://time.com/5342562/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-crisis-cover/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-19T11:00:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:39:26.683Z article:section: Politics og:title: The Story Behind TIME's Trump and Putin 'Summit' Cover og:description: See the merged faces of the two world leaders og:url: https://time.com/5342562/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-crisis-cover/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt769c2a10394b47fa/698935b7fb4eacc1d689726b/trump-putin-summit-crisis-time-magazine-cover-16x9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: trump-putin-summit-crisis-time-magazine-cover-16x9 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Story Behind TIME's Trump and Putin 'Summit' Cover twitter:description: See the merged faces of the two world leaders twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt769c2a10394b47fa/698935b7fb4eacc1d689726b/trump-putin-summit-crisis-time-magazine-cover-16x9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Story Behind TIME's Trump and Putin 'Summit Crisis' Cover > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jul 19, 2018 11:00 AM UTC  Photo illustration by Nancy Burson for TIME (Digital imaging by John Depew. Source photographs Trump: Getty Images; Putin: Kremlin handout) by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jul 19, 2018 11:00 AM UTC At first glance, the man on [TIME’s July 30, 2018](http://time.com/magazine), cover might seem familiar: it was created by morphing images of two of the world’s most recognizable men, President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The composite image, by visual artist Nancy Burson, is meant to represent this particular moment in U.S. foreign policy, following the pair’s recent meeting in Helsinki, Finland. As Brian Bennett writes in [this week’s cover story](http://www.time.com/trump-putin), “A year and a half into his presidency, Trump’s puzzling affinity for Putin has yet to be explained. Trump is bruised by the idea that Russian election meddling taints his victory, those close to him say, and can’t concede the fact that Russia did try to interfere in the election, regardless of whether it impacted the outcome. He views this problem entirely through a political lens, these people say, unable or unwilling to differentiate between the question of whether his campaign colluded with Russia—which he denies—and the question of whether Russia attempted to influence the election.” > [](https://twitter.com/TIME/status/1019905190370119680) To represent that conflict, Burson merged the faces of Trump and Putin into a still image and video which morphs between the shifting appearances of the two world leaders. Over three decades ago, Burson, featured in [TIME’s 100 Photographs](http://100photos.time.com/photos/nancy-burson-androgyny), which documented the most influential photographs of all time, began her pioneering photographic work with MIT scientists, leading to the development of computer-generated compositing technology. “I wanted to create answers to unasked questions,” says Burson, about the origins of her artistic process, “like what would it look like if you put six men and six women together?”  Androgyny (6 Men + 6 Women), 1982 Nancy Burson She became well known for developing a technique to age faces, which is used by the FBI to find missing children. Most famously, she created the aged image of kidnapped 6-year-old Etan Patz that appeared on the front page of the New York _Post_ in 1985.  The November 2, 1985, cover featuring Burson's altered image of Etan Patz. Courtesy of New York Post She says the goal of her latest composite is to help readers “stop and think” when it comes to similarities between the two leaders. “What my work has always been about is allowing people to see differently,” she adds. “The combining of faces is a different way for people to see what they couldn’t see before.” “I think the best art can change people’s perception of how they see how they are as human beings,” says Burson. “Art makes everything possible and beyond.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5342562/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-crisis-cover/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5342562/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-crisis-cover/"},"headline":"The Story Behind TIME's Trump and Putin 'Summit Crisis' Cover","datePublished":"2018-07-19T11:00:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:39:26.683Z","description":"Visual artist Nancy Burson merged their faces to help readers “stop and think” when it comes to similarities between the leaders.","url":"https://time.com/5342562/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-crisis-cover/","keywords":["russia","Vladimir Putin","photography","Cover","Donald Trump","summit","Helsinki","LightBox"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt769c2a10394b47fa/698935b7fb4eacc1d689726b/trump-putin-summit-crisis-time-magazine-cover-16x9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt769c2a10394b47fa/698935b7fb4eacc1d689726b/trump-putin-summit-crisis-time-magazine-cover-16x9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"trump-putin-summit-crisis-time-magazine-cover-16x9","caption":"","creditText":"Photo illustration by Nancy Burson for TIME (Digital imaging by John Depew. 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