Henry Horenstein

Henry Horenstein (born 1947) is an American artist, photographer, filmmaker and educator. He is the author of over 35 books, including a series of instructional textbooks.

Life and work
He studied history at the University of Chicago and earned his BFA and MFA at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he is now professor of photography. He has worked as a professional photographer, filmmaker, teacher, and author since the early 1970s.

Honky Tonk: Portraits of Country Music (2003) is a documentary survey of country music during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Honky Tonk has also been presented as an exhibition at many public and private museums and galleries, notably the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in 2006, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum in 2005, and The Annenberg Space for Photography in 2014.

In recent years, Horenstein has been working on short documentary films. His films include Murray (2010), with William A. Anderson and Hillary Spera; Spoke (2014), a celebration of the Austin, Texas, dance hall, the Broken Spoke, which was funded by The Annenberg Space for Photography and screened at the Austin Film Festival; Partners (2018), which premiered in May 2018 at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts; and Blitto Underground (2021), about bohemian Buenos Aires, which premiered at the International Film Festival in Buenos Aires, the Paris Independent Film Festival, and the Berlin International Art Film Festival. He is currently at work on Marksville, LA, a film about Cajun Louisiana.

Speedway 1972, his photographs shot at the Thompson Speedway 50 years ago, was published by Stanley/Barker (UK) in 2022.

"We Sort of People", in collaboration with writer Leslie Tucker, will be published by Kehrer Verlag (Germany) in 2023.

Horenstein lives in Boston.

Publications

 * Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual, Little, Brown, 1974, 1983, 2005
 * Beyond Basic Photography: A Technical Manual, Little, Brown, 1977
 * The Photographer's Source: A Complete Catalog, Simon & Schuster, 1989
 * Baseball Days: From the Sandlots To The Show, text by Bill Littlefield, Bulfinch/Little, Brown, 1993
 * Color Photography: A Working Manual, Little, Brown, 1995
 * Racing Days, text by Brendan Boyd, Viking, 1987; (paperback edition) Owl/Henry Holt, 1995; Pond, 1999
 * Branson, MO: Las Vegas of the Ozarks, Artisan/Workman, 1998
 * Creatures, Pond/Consortium, 1999; (paperback edition) Stewart, Tabori, Chang, 2000
 * Canine, Pond/Consortium, 2000
 * ''Digital Photography: A Basic Manual, Little Brown, 2001
 * Photography, co-author Russell Hart, Prentice-Hall/Pearson, 2001, 2004
 * Aquatics, Stewart, Tabori, Chang, 2001
 * Honky Tonk: Portraits of Country Music, Chronicle, 2003
 * Revised edition. WW Norton, 2012.
 * Humans, Kehrer, 2004
 * Close Relations, powerhouse, 2007
 * Animalia, Pond, 2008
 * SHOW, Pond, 2010
 * Digital Photography: A Basic Manual, Little, Brown, 2011
 * Histories, Honky Tonk, 2016
 * Shoot What You Love, Monacelli, 2016
 * Make Better Pictures, Little, Brown, 2018
 * Henry Horenstein: Selected Works, List Gallery, Swarthmore College, 2019
 * Speedway72, Stanley/Barker, 2022. ISBN 978-1-913288-47-1.
 * "We Sort of People", Kehrer Verlag, 2023

Films

 * Preacher (1998)
 * Murray (2007) – with William A. Anderson and Hillary Spera
 * Spoke (2014)
 * Partners (2018)
 * Blitto Underground (2021)
 * Marksville, LA (in progress)

Film Credits

 * Imagraphy (2019)
 * Country: Portraits of an American Sound (2015)
 * The Photographers Series: Henry Horenstein (2014)

Collections
Horenstein's work is held in the following permanent collections:
 * J. Paul Getty Museum
 * Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
 * San Antonio Museum of Art
 * Duke University's David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library – holds a significant collection of Horenstein's work
 * Smithsonian Museum of American History – holds a significant collection of Horenstein's work

General references

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