Henry Horenstein is an American photographer, author, teacher, and filmmaker based in Massachusetts. The collection comprises 247 black-and-white and color photographic prints selected from his projects, a large series of about 2500 contact sheets, and a few other related materials. Subjects in the project prints series include Horenstein's family and friends; beachgoers in Havana, Cuba; blues and country musicians, the venues where they play, and their fans; the human body in extreme close-ups; horse and stock car racing; burlesque and drag performers; and historic tri-racial communities in Maryland. Together, the prints and contact sheets offer landscapes, street scenes, storefronts, theaters, highways, museums, concerts, bars, nightlife, fairs, and people and animals in Cuba, Dubai, Germany, Los Angeles, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts and all of New England, Missouri, New York, Paris, Tennessee, Texas, Venezuela, and other places. The dominant format is gelatin silver, with some chromogenic and digital work; print sizes range from 8x10 to 20x24 inches. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.
Collection comprises 247 black-and-white and color photographs taken by Henry Horenstein from 1970 to 2013, a large series of contact sheets spanning his career, and a few other supporting materials. Subjects range widely, with an emphasis on entertainment and music cultures. These images feature portraits of country and blues musicians, including Nathan Abshire, Dewey Balfa, Loretta Lynn, Del McCoury, Dolly Parton, Stringbean, and Doc Watson; other images show the venues where they perform and their families and fans. Another project documents drag and burlesque performers in Los Angeles, New York City, and Caracas and Buenos Aires, Venezuela. Other images include street musicians, honky-tonk bands, and barroom dancers and drinkers. The contact sheets series also includes many photographs of concerts and musicians.
Other project series feature Horenstein's family and friends; life on the El Malecón waterfront in Havana, Cuba; buildings, landscapes, and signs taken along Louisiana's highways; country shows at a historic theater in Branson, Missouri; extreme close-ups of the human body; spectators, drivers, stock cars, and vendors at a Connecticut motor speedway, 1972; and behind-the-scenes images of horse racing, including portraits of grooms, owners, bettors, horses in action and at rest, and jockeys, including portraits of Steve Cauthen and female jockey Joey Rusham.
The last series in the collection, "We Sort of People," references a project Horenstein undertook in collaboration with Leslie Tucker to document a cluster of small, tri-racial communities in southern Maryland, where she grew up, whose inhabitants are descendants of intermarriages between African American, white, and Native American people. The title of the project and its associated book (2023) originates from the phrase used by some residents who refer to their community as "we sort of people," calling attention to their unique racial and cultural identity.
The photographs in the collection range in size from approximately 8x10 to 20x24 inches. Photographic formats include chromogenic, pigment inkjet, and gelatin silver darkroom prints; the prints are often marked on the versos with edition numbers, printing dates, and other information, and are signed by the artist. Many have appeared in Horenstein's photobooks published throughout his career.
The estimated 2500 contact sheets in the collection are also black-and-white gelatin silver prints, with a few paper copies and digital prints; subjects include projects and shoots not found in the exhibit prints series. A sampling includes travel in France and Germany, camel racing and street scenes in Dubai, northeast country fairs, studies of animals, especially dogs, the neighborhood of Washington Street in Boston, and commercial shoots.
The series "Speedway 72" includes some proof prints, a speedway pass, and seven folders of layouts related to the artist's book, published in 2022.