Henry Horenstein is an internationally recognized photographer, author, and educator whose work bridges history, culture, and visual storytelling. A professor of photography at the Rhode Island School of Design since 1981, Horenstein studied history at the University of Chicago and the University of Warwick before earning his BFA and MFA in photography at RISD. His training under social historian E. P. Thompson shaped his lifelong mission to document everyday people and places with empathy and respect.
Over the past 50 years, Horenstein has published more than a dozen monographs, including Honky Tonk, Close Relations, Histories, and Shoot What You Love. His forthcoming volume, Miles and Miles of Texas (Honky Tonk Editions, 2025), reflects his personal exploration of Texas humor, history, and humanity through nearly a century of photographic tradition. His work appears in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Getty Museum, and the Library of Congress.
Blending the sensibilities of a historian and the vision of an artist, Horenstein continues to celebrate the cultural rhythms that define the American experience through his teaching, photography, and publications.
