Robert Heinecken memorial exhibit at MOCP

At the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the work of Robert Heinecken (1931-2006) has been collected in an exhibit entitled "Sex and Food." Heinecken's unique style of composing his images has proved to be an enduring inspiration, often imitated, and seldom matched.

From the Chicago Sun-Times Tribune:

Heinecken (1931-2006) mostly didn't photograph the world around him, and he almost never made pretty pictures of pretty things. Rather, he used torn magazine pages and found photos for the purpose of commenting on what he saw as the mostly specious uses of that ubiquitous and potentially shallow art form.

In the world of fine art photography, it's easy to forget that the most banal of advertising an mainstream culture is here because of photography, be it still or film. The Heinecken exhibition closes March 24, but you can learn more about Robert Heinecken in the pages of CameraArts Magazine. His incredible work was first featured in CameraArtsOctober/November 1999, and a retrospective was featured in July/August 2006, both by Mary Ann Lynch.

From Robert Heinecken: Looking Over the Edge in CameraArts October/November 1999:

"Clearly not a traditional photographer, he has been termed as a 'paraphotographer,' a 'metaphotographer,' and a 'guerilla artist.' As one of the first conceptual photographers, he is known as an artist who works with a variety of media, such as photography, painting, video, and sculpture, as well as some literary forms...

"The more than 200 works (from the 1999 exhibition entitled "Robert Heinecken: Photographist"—ed.) showing the manifold methods and materials Heinecken has used include not only traditional photographic and printmaking chemistry, processes and papers, but also linen, wood, copper, crumpled fabric, food, magazine ads, furniture, stand-up cut-outs of celebrities and animals."

As an artist and innovator, Heinecken is missed, and his influence will certainly continue long into the future of fine art photography and culture commentary.