Four&Sons

Up, close, and personal

BY Four, March 17, 2012

When Henry Horenstein describes his passion for photography, two words seem especially charged with meaning: history and duty. Horenstein’s work is driven by the responsibility to document cultures and places that surround us before they disappear. His approach, however, is never clinical, distant or restrained. As Henry points out, ‘more than anything, I like a good story’. Throughout his career, Henry has photographed country musicians in Nashville, family and friends in Massachusetts, horse racing at Saratoga, nightlife in Buenos Aires, camel breeding in Dubai and the neo-burlesque scene in New Orleans, amongst many other subjects. We ask a few questions to the accomplished author and educator.

You have traced your passion for documentary photography back to your interest in history. How this transition happened?
In 1968, Arthur Siegel, my Photo One teacher, introduced me to the documentary photographs of Robert Frank, Brassai, August Sander, Weegee, and Ed van der Elsken. It was this work, and other work like it, that sold me on becoming a photographer. Until then, I had been studying history, with the goal of a PhD and an academic career. But I learned that going into the world with a camera in hand was a lot more fun than retreating to the library with books in hand. The air was healthier—and I got a lot more dates that way. Lucky for me, using a camera I could still be a historian, of sorts. At least that’s what my new friends Frank, Brassai, Sander, Weegee, and van der Elsken were teaching me.

Your subjects are extremely diverse. How much do you need to ‘fall in love’ with a subject to be able to photograph it?
A lot.

We love your inclusion of dogs in Close Relations, they are such an intrinsic part to understand the humans. We take it you grew up with dogs?
Glad you noticed. I love dogs and so does my whole family. Nothing more complicated than that.

The portraits of dogs in Close Relations are totally different to the ones in Canine. How did you approach them both?
Well, they were taken many years apart, so that’s one thing. But in Close Relations I’m really making a documentary, so the dogs are part of the ‘landscape’. Canine is more about abstraction and a part of a larger series I call Animalia.

We found it specially interesting that you seem to document moments in time when there is a sense of change: the transition in country music (Honky Tonk), evolving from being young to becoming an adult (in Close Relations), the rise of burlesque (in Show). Are you attracted to the energy of change? Or the unknown?
I don’t think so. Mostly I find a subject that I like and document it. I know this sounds simplistic, but that’s really what I do.

How do you see the future of documentary photography?
It will continue, no doubt, but there’ll be less of it, I think.

Could you tell us a specially fond memory from your career.
Exhibit of Honky Tonk at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

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Photography by Henry Horenstein
To see more of Henry Horenstein’s work, visit his site

Tags Animalia, Art, Black&White, Book, Canine, Close Relations, Community, Culture, Documentary, Exhibition, Henry Horenstein, History, Photography, Society