Interview with Henry Horenstein

I was studying history at the University of Chicago intending to become a historian. I left school for awhile and took a photography class at Harvard Summer School. From then on I was hooked. I still like history, and a lot of my photographs are documentary in nature, but I saw photography as a more interesting way to spend my life.

I studied with Minor White, who used to have summer workshops in his home. I then decided to go back to school and went to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) to finish my undergraduate degree in photography, and do two years of graduate work. I studied with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskin. Aaron Siskin had an enormous passion and enthusiasm and was actively involved with his student's work. He helped me realize what a great life being a photographer is. However, I didn't learn any specific skills and didn't like his critique because he was very opinionated. Callahan, on the other hand, was laconic but very professional about his teaching. He was an ordinary guy with a no-nonsense work ethic and very dedicated to his work. They were available for their students.

The most important thing a teacher can give you is themselves. Almost anyone can teach you about f-stops or shutter speeds, or you can pick that up from a book. The most important is to have someone there who believes in you and can help you believe in yourself. A lot of teachers don't have that ability, time or interest.

It's kind of a funny story. When I was starting out, photography wasn't widely taught in schools and there were few textbooks, only a couple of self-published instructional manuals. On the side, I was teaching at Project Incorporated, a storefront art school. The ceramics teacher was writing a book and requested some photographs for a book she was writing. A week later, I got a call from the weaving and the painting teachers, who also wanted photographs of their work. They gave me the name of the editor, and I called him up, offering to write a photography book. I sent them an outline, a proposal and some writing samples I had written for the Boston Phoenix, the weekly arts newspaper, and at 25 I was signed up to write a book.

The success of the book is due largely to timing: it was the first or arguably the second book teaching introductory photography and still sells well after all these years. This was a great breakthrough for me because I got some royalties during the year and could pursue my own projects without opening a commercial studio. I wanted to do my own work and my own projects, which is financially difficult to do in any creative field, but especially in an expensive one. From the sales of the book, I was able to have enough of a protection and insurance umbrella to be able to do my personal projects without too much worry, supplementing my income with a little teaching.

I work on projects but don't work continually on them. I have an idea for a project and try to complete it, trying out an idea and taking some pictures to see if I like it, then committing my time and my efforts to it for about two to four years with the aim of doing a book and exhibitions.

I work predominantly in two ways: documentary and experimental. The first method, documentary and historical, comes directly from my interest in studying history. One of my fantasies is that I will take a year off and study history again. In the early years, all of my work was documentary. I had studied history and photography, and documentary photography is a combination of those two subjects. Ten years ago emerged the second method: I started photographing in a more abstract, metaphorical way, using animals and people as subjects. I produced a few books of work around those subjects, such as Canine and Humans. Those are my entertainment work: a little lighter, less heavy, and more visual and thought-provoking.

I photographed aquatic animals in the production of Creatures. I enjoyed the subject matter so much that I decided to take a sabbatical from my teaching position at RISD solely to photograph aquatic creatures. I sought all the aquariums and aquatic exhibits I could find, even in restaurants. I went to Cuba, France, Italy, England, and Germany. I desired plain backgrounds and various species of fish and aquatic creatures. I had no sponsors for this project but self-propelled the idea.

For this project, I used 35mm Agfa black and white slide film. I would push the film to its limits in order to photograph under low-light conditions, sometimes using either a macro lens or a Canon 50/1.0 and put close-up filters on them, if the lighting was particularly low. In regards to technique, I would put the camera up against the glass to keep it steady and also to cut down the relections and glare. I could photograph at very slow speeds in this way.

The most challenging fish I photographed was the Giant Pacific Octopus. I was in Hawaii taking photographs at a small aquarium in Maui, when I heard a commotion from a crowd gathered. An octopus had come out of hiding. Usually non-agressive, I ran in to take a photograph. I had to work quickly, since they rarely come out of hiding and I had been looking to photograph one for months.

Experience is so important with photography. There's a lot of stress involved with being a documentary photographer. All of the projects have been self-inspired. Much of the work has to do with making contacts and talking people into something they may not want to do, like being photographed or having me come along with them. It's contentious and some people don't want you there. In some cases, it's even been a little dangerous. In general, it's not necessarily a peaceful way to work, although wonderful and richly rewarding. In my opinion, photographing animals, people, portraits or nudes is much more peaceful.

I took those pictures while I was in undergrad and graduate school. These were inspired by both Callahan and my interest in history. I worked for fifteen years at least before even publishing a book, although that was always my goal. I have a lot of work that has never seen the light of day, or little pieces have. Today, technology has enabled much cheaper photo book printing. The last book was printed in China for about a third of what it would have cost to be printed in the United States. Some years ago, I started a publishing company called Pond Press to publish my own books, and in addition to my books, have also published some books with other people. I sold the publishing company recently, but they will probably do my next book. For the the past few years, I have alternated publishing a book of my old work and then a book of my new work.

My next book concept is on burlesque, performance, drag, sideshow, circus, and fetish. The idea is a merging of history and performance art. The book's print style is similar to the work Alexey Brodovich showed and supported, the great art director for Harper's Bazaar, in the 30's, 40's and 50's. This project parallels with the animal and nude work I've done in the same abstract, metaphorical style and is also a documentary work. Most of it is photographed in studio. I have one more studio session in L.A. next month and the book will be published in the spring [2008].

It varies all over the place. I'm doing a book now, which is a compilation of my animal pictures. I'm putting this together in a month, which is insane. The project came up quickly. There will be a show at the Peabody Museum at Harvard in the fall of 2007. The book is a catalogue of the work shown at the museum. It's a pretty simple book; the pictures are already done and I don't have to photograph. We just have to prepare the files and work with the designer.

The burlesque book is a different issue because there's a ton of material and it hasn't been pulled together yet. I've been photographing for three or four years on the project. It's in film and all developed and contact-printed. A lot of it has been proofed, which takes a little longer.

Henry Horenstein

For a typical project, I still use film. Allison, my assistant, scans and proofs digitally, and we prepare files for the printer. We use the image files to edit from and go into Bridge. Once we have the edit we give it to a designer. The designer for the burlesque book is a former student of mine, Carrie Hunt, who graduated about ten years ago and works as a graphic designer mostly in the fashion industry. Her husband, also a former student, is a fashion photographer. I want the book to have a little more flair, which is why I went to her as opposed to a traditional book designer. Carrie is designing the book's layout and decides the file sizes. Allison and I then prepare the files for the printer. We proof digitally, but when I do the exhibition for the book, the images will be presented as traditional black and white silver prints. I still have a dark room and prefer the look of a traditional black and white print.

I use four Canon EOS 1s of various types and generations. I use their wide aperture lenses: 50mm/1 and 85mm/1.2 because I photograph under low light all the time. I photograph with macro lenses a lot with close-up filters on them to get beyond 1:1 magnification. Sometimes, to get really close in low light conditions, I will use close-up filters on the 50/1. For my work, I don't like things that sharp. My style, with the exception of documentary photography, is soft. In documentary work, I use medium format cameras and they are sharp enough for my needs.

Yes, I use whatever is appropriate. I like to photograph with natural light. I did an entire book of close-up nudes and never turned on a light, but instead used window light, overhead light, or whatever was available. I was photographing very directed pieces of bodies. Often I'll photograph with studio lights or strobes and just turn on the model light. The effect is a lot warmer and softer than I will get with a strobe.

I use Canon 5Ds and sometimes rent a digital medium format body, such as the Hasselblad H2s and H3s. When I have commercial jobs, I rent a studio with a camera and digital system, and use whatever they have. I don't have a commercial business and can't afford a $30,000-40,000 outfit. I have a couple of 5Ds because I always like to have a backup. That habit saved me on one project. I had pitched a story on horse culture in the United Arab Emirates both to Life Magazine and Aramco World, which was a corporate magazine published for their share holders in the style of National Geographic. I spent time in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi photographing the Dubai World Cup and the surroundings, in very sandy conditions. I started with six cameras. I was there for ten days and came back with only one camera that still worked, because of the sand.

I use the same lenses [Canon 50/1.0 and 85/1.2] as with my film cameras and don't mind that there's a little vignetting. I understand the issues of using lenses made for digital versus traditional lenses, but I kind of like the effect. I use a Tamron zoom lens sometimes as a general lens. I don't care about things looking clean and sharp, but like them looking a little off, a little rougher.

Henry Horenstein

On my wish list is a digital rangefinder camera like my Mamiya 6. If I had that, I would probably photograph in digital rather than film for my medium format work. The Hasselblad is a beautiful camera and relatively portable, but I need something that is more portable and cheaper. We're a ways from that, so I'll photograph with film. For $600 on Ebay, I can get a beautiful medium-format result with film and I have a dark room.

We use Photoshop for processing and Bridge for viewing and archiving. We're looking at Aperture and Lightroom. Once we have something that works for us, I prefer to continue using that until another program is considerably different or better. We have a lot of work to do and not a lot of resources, so I can't afford to spend a few days learning another program unless there's a significant reason to do so.

LaCie Blue Eye for monitor callibration for our LaCie monitors. I don't find it to be super useful, to be honest. We calibrate the monitor, proof it to be sure, and that's about as close as we can get. Before sending a book to be printed, we'll proof digitally, make a couple of traditional prints, and send that to the printer and say this is what we're looking for. When they do their proofing they know if our files are way off and need to be adjusted. The last two books we did, we sent them digital Firewire harddrives with the files on them. The size of the files are usually 15 to 20 megabytes, sometimes 40 megabytes if the image crosses two pages. We send them as 8-bit TIFF files at 300dpi in RGB. The printer does their own conversions to either CMYK or Duotone, as they are usually very specific about this.

Fine art photography was a small field and collectors weren't interested in it. Today, it's changed enormously. In any big city you have several photo galleries. When I was starting out, there were two galleries in NYC that showed photography, and now there are hundreds. Galleries, at least privately-owned galleries, exist to sell work and make money. Work wasn't selling until the 80s and 90s, and it was rare that anyone bought photographs. When I published the books Aquatics, Humans, and Canine, I started getting a lot of gallery shows. The work from Honky Tonk has been shown in private galleries and public spaces, and about fifteen or twenty times over the last few years. The biggest show for Honky Tonk was at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. There are a couple of museum shows coming up: RISD Museum, RI, summer and fall 2007, and Eastern Tennessee Historical Museum in Knoxville, TN, summer and fall, 2007.

Even though the world has opened up for fine art photographers, it's still a long shot that you're ever going to have commercial success. You have to do other work and patch together a career: a little commercial or freelance work, a little teaching, a little house painting or waiting tables, a couple of print sales, etc. Very few people have the luxury of just doing their personal work unless they have the money or have another job that provides them with the money. However, when you're young, it's easier to get by with a patched-together income. It's important to try to do your work as unfettered as you can. It's a cliche, but there's a lot of advantage in that freedom when people aren't looking over your shoulder to see what you're doing.

If you're interested in documentary photojournalism as a career, journalism schools are very good: University of Missouri, Columbia, and Syracuse University. There are dozens of them. The traditional fine arts schools are very good: Rhode Island School of Design, Chicago Art Institute, San Francisco Art Institute, University of Arizona and New Mexico, Florida State, and University of Florida. There are a bunch of schools like Savannah College of Art and Design, School of Visual Arts in NY, and Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, CA, which offer a hybrid fine art and commerical program. I think it's wise to go to a design school like RISD, Chicago, or San Francisco to get your creative bones, develop your personal vision, and understand the creative side. Then follow up with a half-year or year at a professional technical school to learn the kind of skills you need to go out into the world.