In some respects, Horenstein’s work on animals, continues a centuries-old tradition of natural history illustration in the realm of photography. In natural history illustration, animals are often presented in shallow space with limited landscape, sometimes even against a blank page, in order to promote close examination and study of detail. But as much as these photographs promote scientific inquiry, they are more than scientific illustration. Animals were the subjects of our first art and our first metaphors; and freed from the constraints of space and time, many of Horenstein’s creatures remind us of an earlier, magical connection between the “animal world” and our own..
Henry Horenstein has worked as a photographer, teacher, and author since the early 1970s. He is author of over 30 books, including many monographs (Honky tonk, Humans, Creatures, Aquatics, Canine, Racing days). His newest book CLOSE RELATIONS was recently published by PowerHouse Books; it’s a collection of photographs he made as a student of Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind’s at RISD in the early 1970s. Henry's textbooks have been widely used by hundreds of thousands of photography students over past 30 years. He lives in Boston where he continues to photography, exhibit, publish, and teach at RISD, where he is professor of photography.