Director, Glenn Lowry: The artist, Robert Heinecken.
Artist, Robert Heinecken: This is a portrait of Susan Sontag, made very closely after the publication of her book, On Photography. This is a book, which is probably the first American intellectual I would say to really try to understand what photography is and how it relates to the society, how it relates to the culture, what its meanings are other than previous to that; people more interested in what the application of this medium was: art, journalism, illustration, what have you. So it's a very important book. And I was very taken by it but at the same time, rather critical of some aspects of it. So I used that as a source for these two pictures.
Glenn Lowry: Curatorial Fellow Drew Sawyer.
Curator, Drew Sawyer: In S.S. Copyright, instant prints are directly stapled, to board. On the left we have the portrait, which is made out of a collage of photographs of the text itself. The one on the right consists of photographs taken by Heinecken's studio assistant in and around his studio.
Robert Heinecken: This was made with very early Polaroid material. So half the pictures are now brown and the whole thing is disappearing, is what I'm getting at, which is another thing I sort of enjoy.
Glenn Lowry: Though staples are used throughout the work, take a close look at the lower right corner of the right panel.
Robert Heinecken: This is my signature, which I think is probably the best part of the whole thing. But at this point, the staples are all rusted.