The S.S. Copyright Project "On Photography"

Photography and Media

1978

Robert Heinecken
American, 1931–2006

Here Robert Heinecken created portraits of the American writer Susan Sontag using images of pages from her widely read book On Photography and snapshots from his own everyday life. A few fragments in the collage have turned brown due to insufficient application of a protective coating that stops oxidation (a type of deterioration caused by oxygen). Indeed, the type of black-and-white Polaroid film Heinecken used here required the immediate application of a protective coating to prevent oxidation of the silver in the image. The photographer Ansel Adams, who tested products for the Polaroid company, noted that in downtown San Francisco, pollution caused uncoated prints to begin discoloring within an hour.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Photography and Media

Artist: Robert Heinecken
Title: The S.S. Copyright Project "On Photography"
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1978
Medium: Silver diffusion prints (diptych, photocollages) with typed text panel
Inscriptions: Signed and dated, lower right corner of panel 2, in staples
Dimensions: Image, each collage: 121.5 × 121.3 cm (47 7/8 × 47 13/16 in.); Text panel paper: 27.9 × 21.6 cm (11 × 8 9/16 in.)
Credit Line: Acquired through a grant from the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation; purchased with funds provided by of Sondra Berman Epstein, Reva and David Logan, and the Photography Circle
Reference Number: 1991.292.1-3

Borger, Irene, Susie Cohen, A.D. Coleman, David Pagel, and Lynne Warren. 1999. “Robert Heinecken, Photographist: A Thirty-Five-Year Retrospective.” Exh. cat. Museum of Contemporary Art. p. 15, fig. 3 (other print of this image), p. 40–1 (detail), p. 72–73, pl. 55–56.

Chicago, IL, Museum of Contemporary Art, “Robert Heinecken: Photographist. A 35-year Retrospective,” October 2, 1999–December 15, 1999; traveled to Los Angeles County Museum of Art, February 13-April 24, 2000 (Chicago only).
Art Institute of Chicago, “Pieced Together: Photomontage from the Collection,” May 22–September 19, 2004. (Elizabeth Siegel)
Art Institute of Chicago, “A Mind at Play,” June 14–September 7, 2008. (David Travis)
Art Institute of Chicago, “Conserving Photographs,” November 21–April 28, 2019. (Sylvie Penichon) (Gallery 10)

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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