William Heick was born in Kentucky in 1916, attended the University of Cincinnati, and began his photographic career as a naval intelligence photographer during World War II. After the war, he moved to San Francisco and studied at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute) under a cadre of instructors that included Ansel Adams (1902–1984). It was during this time that he focused his lens on contemporary urban life. He became friends with Imogen Cunningham (1883–1976) and Dorothea Lange (1895–1965), whom he cites as his greatest influences. In Imogen Cunningham (1949), Heick turns the camera on the photographer herself. She appears sweet and grandmotherly, with her glass of milk and wooly hat, but her solitary presence in a nighttime diner hints at a more idiosyncratic and independent life. Heick’s portraits of artistic luminaries, including the photographer Edward Weston (1886–1958), the author Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), the painter Mark Rothko (1903–1970), and the musician Count Basie (1904–1984), are similarly informal. The unceremonious tone of these portraits, as well as their frequent use of the close-up, indicates the photographer’s intimacy with his subjects and his ability to relate to their positions as artists. Jennie Waldow ’12 Wilson Intern 2011

Signed: Bill Heick

"In Imogen Cunningham (1949), Heick turns the camera on the photographer herself. She appears sweet and grandmotherly, with her glass of milk and wooly hat, but her solitary presence in a nighttime diner hints at a more idiosyncratic and independent life. Heick’s portraits of artistic luminaries, including the photographer Edward Weston (1886–1958), the author Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), the painter Mark Rothko (1903–1970), and the musician Count Basie (1904–1984), are similarly informal. The unceremonious tone of these portraits, as well as their frequent use of the close-up, indicates the photographer’s intimacy with his subjects and his ability to relate with their positions as artists."

(Jennie Waldow, Wilson Intern 2009-2010)

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• Females

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