Robert Heinecken: Magazines

Robert Heinecken seldom used a camera. A self-described ôpara-photographer,ö he repurposed found imagery to explore the underpinnings of daily life. He cut into periodicalsùsnipping heads from lithe bodies and slicing rouged lips from smiling cheeksùand reorganized these fragments into collaged wholes that reveal the greed, hypocrisy and misogyny behind traditional depictions of America, and expand the possibilities of the photographic form. This book presents HeineckenÆs ôPeriodicalsö (1969û72) and ôRevised Magazinesö (1989û94) as 25 functional facsimiles. Originally conceived as insertions into circuits of quotidian life, these collage-publications were taken from newsstands, altered, and then returned to be purchased by unsuspecting consumers. By pasting a Vietnam War image into fashion magazines or a dominatrix into Time, Heinecken created serials that are disturbing yet familiar, known cultural referents now oppose their presumed functions. HeineckenÆs clandestine acts not only render these mechanisms vi