Robert Heinecken (1931–2006) was born in Denver, and studied printmaking and graphic design at UCLA. In 1963 he founded the UCLA photography program, building a curriculum that transcended the traditions of the discipline. In the mid-1960s Heinecken abandoned the camera in favor of using found negatives and periodicals to create photographic sculptures, photograms and re-assembled magazines. He frustrated the mechanisms of the mass media and reproduction by collapsing and disseminating found photographs, imbuing images with alternative meanings that are often incongruous and satirical within socio-political and erotic contexts.