Ken Heyman (October 6, 1930 – December 10, 2019) was an American photographer, best known for his collaborations with the cultural anthropologist
Margaret Mead and the
36th President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson.
Biography
Heyman studied under Margaret Mead at
Columbia University and subsequently traveled with her to the Indonesian island of
Bali
Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...
where they collaborated on the book ''Family'' (1965). The volume went on to sell over 300,000 copies. Mead once said of his work done in concert with her own that "Ken photographs relationships".
Then in 1966, Heyman provided the photographs for the volume ''This America'' with text by President
Lyndon B. Johnson extolling the latter's
Great Society plan.
In 1975, Heyman collaborated on a second book with Mead, ''World Enough''.
Heyman also took the photographs for the book ''The Private World of Leonard Bernstein'', which peers into the inner sanctum of the composer, conductor, and musician
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
and includes a picture the lensman captured of
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...
singing an
aria from
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...
's
La traviata
''La traviata'' (; ''The Fallen Woman'') is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on ''La Dame aux camélias'' (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' adapted from his own 18 ...
with Bernstein playing the piano.
Heyman's work is included in the permanent collection of among other art institutions the
Museum of Modern Art,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, and
Whitney Museum all in
New York City, and the
Nasher Museum of Art at
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
in
Durham, North Carolina
Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...
.
For a time, Heyman was a member of the
Magnum photographic cooperative. Also during his career, he was represented by the
Rapho photo agency.
In 2007, Heyman's photo portraits of renowned
Pop artists, including
Andy Warhol,
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Fox Lichtenstein (; October 27, 1923 – September 29, 1997) was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. Hi ...
,
Claes Oldenburg,
James Rosenquist, and
Tom Wesselmann
Thomas K. Wesselmann (February 23, 1931 – December 17, 2004) was an American artist associated with the Pop Art movement who worked in painting, collage and sculpture.
Early years
Wesselmann was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati.
From 1949 ...
were the subject of the ''Pop Portraits'' exhibition at the
Albright -Knox Gallery (now known as the Buffalo AKG Art Museum). The exhibit arose and displayed some of the works by Heyman from the book of the same name the aforementioned ''Pop Portraits'' (
Basic Books
Basic Books is a book publisher founded in 1950 and located in New York, now an imprint of Hachette Book Group. It publishes books in the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, science, politics, sociology, current affairs, and history.
H ...
1965) which also features writing by John Rublowsky. One of Heyman's portraits of Lichtenstein from this series was also exhibited on the show ''Artist Complex – Photographic Portraits from Baselitz to Warhol'' at in 2918 at the Museum für Fotografie in
Berlin.
References
External links
Ken Heyman collectionat the
Smithsonian National Museum of American History ''(Photographic History collection)''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heyman, Ken
1930 births
2019 deaths
Columbia University alumni
American photojournalists