Audio Tour - Facing the Lens

Harrison Photography Gallery 365

1206 - Robert Heinecken
Presentation at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, February 10, 1983

Marc Norberg
American, born 1954
Robert Heinecken, 1983
Gelatin silver print
Gift of Film in the Cities 96.37.47

Robert Heinecken was known for using the female form in much of his work. He often commented on the male gaze and conventions of eroticism, but was roundly criticized by feminists. Rarely wielding a camera himself, he worked instead as an irreverent appropriator who often used images from popular and pornographic magazines, product packaging, and broadcast television. In addition, he used various and combined printmaking mediums, greatly expanding the boundaries of photographic art. Heinecken established the photography department at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he taught for thirty-one years. Throughout the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, he influenced a generation of experimental artists and photographers.