ROBERT HEINECKEN
American
Robert Heinecken is a pioneering figure in contem-
porary photography and somewhat of a paradox, as
he is a photographer who has rarely taken a picture.
Although not as well known as many of his contem-
poraries his influence has been significant, both for
his creative work and his role as an educator. Putting
forth some of the earliest ideas about ‘‘photo-sculp-
ture’’—three-dimensional structures upon which
photographs were presented, exploring notions
about mass media and popular culture, and explor-
ing the form now known as artists’ books, Heineck-
en’s work was an integral part of the aesthetic
pressure-cooker that was Southern California in the
1960s and 1970s. In the early 1960s he founded the
photography program at the University of California
at Los Angeles (UCLA), eventually mentoring doz-
ens in the graduate program, many of whom have
gone on to significant careers, including photogra-
phers David Bunn, Patrick Nagatani, Jo Ann Callis,
John Divola, and Ellen Brooks, video artist Scott
Rankin, and author and teacher James Hugunin.
Born in 1931 in Denver, Colorado, the only child
of a Methodist minister, a missionary from a family
of missionaries, Heinecken attended public schools
in Colorado and as a boy took informal art lessons.
The family relocated to Los Angeles and then Riv-
erside, California, where Heinecken attended high
school and a community college, continuing his
interest in art. His early adulthood was rebellious;
enrolling in UCLA, he was put on probation and
dropped out after less than two years of study. To
avoid the draft for the Korean War, he enlisted in
the U.S. Navy as a Naval Aviation Cadet. Although
barely meeting the minimum height requirement
(years later admitting he stuffed his boots with
newspaper), he found the discipline of the military
helpful. Eventually he was commissioned as a Sec-
ond Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps as a jet
fighter pilot, where he trained other pilots and
achieved the rank of Captain.
After discharge Heinecken returned to UCLA
where he met Edmund Teske, who was working as
a figure model, and became associated with Linda
Connor and Jack Welpott, who was the first MFA
candidate in photography accepted into the graduate
program. He also met the influential artist Wallace
Berman, also a poet and small-press publisher. His
interest in American visual culture began early; he
presented an audio-visual program at Aspen Design
Conference in 1963 on the topic. It was in 1965 that
he attended the meeting in Rochester, New York, that
led to the formation of the Society for Photographic
Education, where he met Nathan Lyons, Carl Chiar-
enza, Jerome Liebling, Van Deren Coke, Minor
White, and Beaumont Newhall, all of whom were to
become important friends as well as colleagues.
Although chiefly associated with California, in
the mid-1980s Heinecken began living alternative
years in Chicago, serving as a guest instructor at
the School of the Art Institute. The motivation for
this was his relationship with photographer Joyce
Neimanas, whom he had met in mid-1976 when
serving as a guest instructor at Columbia College.
Heinecken quickly became an integral part of Chi-
cago’s important photography community, which
included SAIC colleague Kenneth Josephson. His
seminal photo-installation Waking Up In New
Americawas presented at the Art Institute of Chi-
cago in 1987. Heinecken continued to teach at
UCLA until his retirement in 1991 after which he
was appointed Professor Emeritus; in 1996 he relo-
cated to Chicago full-time.
Although Heinecken is thought of and identifies
himself as a photographer, his only use of a camera
was the Polaroid SX-70, with which he created the
artists’ book and seriesHe:/She:in the mid-1970s.
His career is not without controversy; a continuing
motif is pornography, and his work has been criti-
cized as being misogynist, as typified by the 1973
mixed-media workLingerie for a Feminist Suntan
#3. This work challenges feminist teachings that
the male gaze is harmful and exploitative in any
and all of its forms with a prickly humor that most
likely confirmed his detractors’ opinions. Consist-
ing of a life-size photograph of a voluptuous nude
woman, actual bra and panties are displayed on a
hanger attached to the work. The areas usually
covered by this clothing are hand-colored with a
wash of brown; the rest of her body is pale.
Heinecken’s ideas about sculpture and photogra-
phy helped initiate the seminal 1970 exhibition at
the Museum of Modern Art, New York,Photogra-HEINECKEN, ROBERT