Virginia Heckert

Bio

Virginia Heckert is the curator of photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum. She is the author of Light, Paper, Process: Reinventing Photography (2015), Ed Ruscha and “Some Los Angeles Apartments” (2013), and Some Aesthetic Decisions: The Photographs of Judy Fiskin (2011), and coauthor, with Anne Lacoste, of Irving Penn: Small Trades (2009), all published by Getty.

Photographs, J. Paul Getty Museum Curator

Stories

  1. Remembering the Creativity and Humor of David Hockney

    Article

    Tim Potts and David Hockney at the Getty Center at the Getty Center

    Getty curators look back at two exhibitions that celebrated his 80th birthday

    Sep 3, 2026

  2. Photography in the Time of Covid

    Article

    A house entryway with wide plank bleached wood floors, white walls, white doors, and two giant fake-looking planted plants that touch the ceiling on either side of the area where the entry opens out.

    Five years after the Covid-19 pandemic started, a rotation of photographs at the Getty Museum reflects on a time when the world shut down, but new ways of seeing emerged

    Jul 1, 2025

  3. Riding through Compton

    Article

    Photographer Melodie McDaniel puts a spotlight on teenage equestrians

    Mar 9, 2022