Stop 1478

Female Narrator Robert Heinecken called himself a “para photographer” because he made so many photographs without a camera. Arpad Kovacs from the Department of Photographs.

[electronic ambient music evoking a slightly dark, mysterious mood]

Arpad Kovacs I think this was him directly engaging with the television. These nine photographs by Robert Heinecken, better known as videograms, were created by placing sensitized sheets of silver dye bleach paper unto the screen of a television in a darkened room. And then turning the TV set on and off to create an exposure. The length of exposure was several seconds, and the blurry images are a result of the paper registering the movement of the screen.

Female Narrator After appropriating images from magazines in the 1970s, [music ends] he turned to television with the same enthusiasm in the 1980s.

Arpad Kovacs I think he was fascinated by the television mainly because he was a major consumer of televised information.

Female Narrator He was especially taken with the figure of the newscaster and explored it in many different forms.

Arpad Kovacs I don't know exactly what fascinated him about the TV newscaster, but my guess is that it was this person who mediated information but also these people became personalities. You felt like you had a connection with them, because you would see them day in and day out. [electronic ambient music evoking a slightly dark, mysterious mood] It was this illusion of a connection that I think he was really interested in exploring.

Female Narrator Situated in your living room, the newscaster seemed close enough to touch.

Arpad Kovacs The gesture of placing a sheet directly on the screen I think is incredibly powerful, because it was a way for him to try and get even closer to these people without actually engaging them in person.

[music ends]