“The Absorbed Tradition” is an exhibition of 13 new large-scale works by Erik Madigan Heck, created during the early months of 2014. The images include landscape, portraiture and fashion-based photographs, which highlight the artist’s continuous interest in abstracting and reshaping the history of photography into a new hybrid form, while formally paying homage to the established medium.
In addition to comprising the exhibition, the images are featured in a special issue of CREEM magazine. Curated and photographed by the artist, the publication has been designed as an art book with two parts. The first section, entitled “Conversations on Photography,” focuses on the artist’s interviews with and portraits of high-profile individuals in the world of photography. Curators, directors and fellow photographers — including Taryn Simon, Elinor Carucci, Vince Aletti, Susan Bright and Kathy Ryan — are captured in in-depth features alongside their own work. The second section of the magazine is composed of Heck’s new works. Images range from portraits of Waris Ahluwalia in Haider Ackermann and Jamie Bochert in Ann Demeulemeester to a 40-page black-and-white book of portraits of Guinevere Van Seenus. The issue concludes with the third installment of the artist’s “Without A Face” series, originally commissioned by and debuted in New York Magazine. Here, it exists as a series of ambiguous “advertisements” made for a selection of fashion designers.
Erik Madigan Heck is a photographer, filmmaker and writer. In 2013 he received an Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography for his work. He is a regular contributor to the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, W and Harper’s Bazaar UK. He is the founder of Nomenus Quarterly and No Photos Please, and is the author of “January to August.” Heck is included in the forthcoming exhibition “Don’t Stop Now: Fashion Photography Next,” opening July 2014 at the Foam Museum in Amsterdam, with an accompanying catalog published by Thames & Hudson.
For more information, please contact Vittorio Calabrese at vittorioc@bosicontemporary.com.