Edward Higgins, April 2014
Edward Higgins is a member of The Association Internationale Des Critiques d’Art.
Thierry Mugler, Paris, October 1982. Gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 in. Estate of the Artist
Scott Heiser
The starkly contrasting black and white photographs of Scott Heiser have been described as being Film Noir or Surrealist. If they are it’s a kinder and gentler type of Film Noir and Surrealism in that there is never evidence of evil or sinister distortion. If anything, this show of his work at the Delaware Art Museum—albeit a touch of 1930s Berlin cabaret feel to it—demonstrates that Heiser died far too young, leaving behind a tantalizing body of work.
Fashion, Circus, Spectacle: Photographs by Scott Heiser is the first retrospective of his work. In this exhibition, the images, some 80 of them, run the range from acrobats, to models, to Swedish gymnasts on the World Trade Center plaza, come from Heiser’s world in the 1970s and ‘80s in New York City. He was also a regular at the Westminster Dog Show, the Big Apple Circus, Parisian fashion runways, and parades.
This was a world of avant garde magazines, freelance artists of all stripes, Warhol’s Factory, ballet, fashion and an almost desperate need for entertainment and self-aggrandizement. The hip New York scene at the time was a “cross pollination of art, fashion, and photography.” There was also spectacle and performance art and Heiser regarded the public events he attended as art, and he wasn’t alone. Art in those decades was coming off the excitement and exhilaration of the earlier Abstract Expressionists whose drinking, brawling, and lifestyle were the stuff of legends.
It was also the age of Warhol’s Brillo Box and what Arthur Danto referred to as the “death of art.” So anybody’s definition, anyone’s judgment was as good as anyone else’s.
While Heiser’s reputation was built on fashion shows, public performances, weird angles, close cropping and high contrast, he was a unique type of photojournalist. In fact, most of his work was published in magazines and newspapers “covering” an event; his work was not there to illustrate the copy but rather to “cover” the news as he saw it. As such, his work stands alone, even if it did not often include much of the fashion or the people involved.
Heiser was born in Wilmington in 1949 and graduated from Thomas McKean High School. He later attended the Rhode Island School of Design where he studied under the noted photographer Harry Callahan and illustrator Richard Merkin.
After graduation he moved to New York where he began as an assistant to photographer Deborah Turbeville. He was a prolific worker and he successfully freelanced his work to the national press: Interview, New York Magazine, Vogue, GQ, Spin, and the Village Voice. He also sold work locally to Soho Weekly News, New York Rocker, and Paper. His portraits are in the display and they include Andy Warhol. Jamie Wyeth, Marianne Faithful and Alberta Hunter. Somewhat surprisingly, he also did portraits of Jessica Mitford and Gerard Depardieu.
It was a time of great creativity and opportunity for that creativity to be shown. Heiser showed his work at a number of smaller venues. He kept his expenses low—“bathroom was his lab, a closet his darkroom,” remembers his friend Thomas Woodruff. “A fun evening in those days was to have a cheap meal of General Tso’s Chicken and vodka gimlets...” Heiser’s work was influenced by Surrealist photographers like Man Ray and Andre Kertesz and earlier artists like Cecil Beaton, Diane Arbus, and Gary Winogrand. In 1993, after 20 years of work, Heiser died at the age of 44 from complications of AIDS.
That was not the end of the story. About 20 years later, Heather Campbell Coyle, curator at the Delaware Art Museum, came across nine images of Heiser’s. “When I encountered these photographs in storage, I was captivated by the dramatic compositions and beautiful printing.” she said. “I couldn’t believe that he wasn’t better known.” From there came research, interviews, more research and more interviews. That led to the current show and a catalogue with essays by Coyle, Woodruff and others on the life and work of Scott Heiser.
Heiser’s work is also included in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of Fashion, the Museum of the City of New York, the Fashion Institute of Technology, the Brooklyn Museum, and the New York Public Library.
Delaware Art Museum, 2301 Kentmere Parkway, Wilmington, DE (302) 571-9590. delart.org. The exhibit runs through June 1, 2014.
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