Erik Madigan Heck – Old Future

As part of the XI Moscow International Biennale of Fashion and Style Photography 2019 the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow presents ‘Old Future’, an exhibition by Erik Madigan Heck.

Erik Madigan Heck is a rising star of American photography. In 2013 Heck was one of the youngest photographers to receive the ICP Infinity Award, and in 2015 he received the AI-IP American Photography Prize. In 2017 the prestigious publishers Thames & Hudson and Abrams Books issued Erik Madigan Heck’s first monograph, ‘Old Future’.

Erik Madigan Heck is a regular contributor to The New York Times, Vanity Fair, TIME, The New Yorker and Harper’s Bazaar UK. He has worked with international stars like Natalie Portman, Tilda Swinton, Carey Mulligan, Saoirse Ronan, Adele, Pharrell Williams, Ellsworth Kelly and Dakota Fanning, as well as collaborating with Chanel, Rodarte, Alexander McQueen, Dries Van Noten, Jean Paul Gaultier, Valentino, Louis Vuitton and Kenzo, among others. His advertising clients include Sotheby’s, Clinique, Nike, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, The New York City Ballet, The GAP, etc.

At the age of 23 Heck founded the legendary Nomenus Quarterly. The magazine was published as an irregular, limited-edition folio that ranges from 5 to 50 copies. Each item represents a unique art object. The price of one issue can fetch $6,500.

Art has always been a source of inspiration for great photographers. Erwin Blumenfeld’s closest friends were George Grosz and Francis Picabia; William Klein studied under André Lhote and Fernand Léger; Horst P. Horst collaborated with Salvador Dali. When asked what artists most influenced his work, Erik Madigan Heck gives precedence to Edouard Vuillard, Edgar Degas, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas and Gerhard Richter.

Erik Madigan Heck’s work combines romanticism and futurism, naturalism and staging, the images of past eras and the daring language of modern design and fashion. Each of Heck’s pictures becomes a symbiosis of painting, graphics, photography, cinema and visual poetry.

Erik Madigan Heck created the ‘Old Future’ project in collaboration with Harper’s Bazaar, continuing the visual traditions established by Alexey Brodovitch, the magazine’s celebrated art director. Exhibition courtesy of the Christophe Guye Galerie (Zurich, Switzerland).