Mr. President

A photographer who rarely used a camera, Robert Heinecken appropriated images from film, magazines, and television to satirize American popular culture, from standards of beauty to obsessions with sex, war, and food. In this series of images, he photographed a television set as President Ronald Reagan—who famously maintained a controlled and polished image in the press—held a news conference during the Iran-Contra affair. Taking snippets of Reagan’s remarks out of context and presenting them in a composite narrative, Heinecken revealed a new meaning that is at best ambiguous and at worst dangerously manipulative. By focusing on the television as a seductive medium that shapes political dialogue, Heinecken critiqued the unquestioned reception of messages and urged viewers to challenge the rhetorical implications inherent in everyday political discourse.