CEPA’s Ken Heyman: Being Human at M&T Bank

CEPA Gallery is pleased to partner with the Burchfield Penney Art Center and M&T Bank to present Ken Heyman: Being Human. While Ken Heyman’s name may not be instantly familiar to most, his photographic work has permeated printed media and popular culture for the past 50 years. He shot more that 150 photojournalist assignments for Life magazine, worked extensively with anthropologist Margaret Mead, collaborated on the first book about Pop artists including Andy Warhol, and developed the “Hip Shot”—photos shot at hip level—which gave Heyman’s viewers a new way of looking at the world around them.

Ken Heyman has photographed the unknown, the famous, and the infamous in over 60 counties. He encourages us to identify with people we seemingly have nothing in common with and to recognize that no matter what our differences, we share many similarities too. Together these photographs explore what being old, being happy, being alone, being mysterious—what being human—truly means.

Ken Heyman: Being Human was first presented in 2007 as a 50-year retrospective at CEPA Gallery and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and included over 150 photographs. The exhibition went on to receive an American Masterpieces Visual Arts Touring Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and has toured the U.S. for the last 5 years. Before being returned to the artist we are pleased to share the work with M&T Bank and its many patrons.

The exhibition runs through 2015 in the main lobby of 1 Fountain Plaza on the 500 block of Main Street.