Bird’s is pleased to welcome Henry Horenstein for a seated conversation celebrating his most recent monograph, Miles and Miles of Texas. Horenstein will be joined in conversation with Michael Thomas. We will also be screening Horenstein's 2014 short film, Spoke, about the infamous dance hall in Austin, the Broken Spoke. Following the conversation and screening, Horenstein will be signing copies of the book.
About the Author
Horenstein studied history at the University of Chicago and earned his BFA and MFA at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he studied with legends Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind.
His work is collected and exhibited internationally, and he has published over 40 books, including several monographs of his own work, such as Honky Tonk, Histories, Show, Animalia, Humans, Racing Days, Close Relations, and many others. He has also authored Black & White Photography, Digital Photography, and Beyond Basic Photography, used by hundreds of thousands of college, university, high-school, and art school students as their introduction to photography. His Shoot What You Love serves both as a memoir and a personal history of photography over the past 50 years. His recent monographs, Speedway1972 was published by Stanley/Barker (UK) in 2022 and We Sort of People was published by Kehrer Verlag (Ger) in 2023.
In recent years, Henry has been making films: Preacher, Murray, Spoke, Partners, and Blitto Underground. He is currently in production on Marksville, LA, a film about Cajun Louisiana.
Henry is professor of photography at RISD and lives in Boston.
About the Book
Miles and Miles of Texas features a collection of nearly 100 photographs that Henry has taken all over the state, mostly between 2021-2024. Texas has been a continual source of inspiration for Henry, and these pictures reflect the people, places, music, and culture that make Texas so unique.
About the Film
Spoke - 21 minutes. 2014 Screened at the 2014 Austin Film Festival
Texas used to be full of dance halls. Just about every town had one, courtesy of German and Czech immigrants who started coming to Texas in the mid-19th century. The dance hall was a family place where mostly farmers and other rural citizens could relax, socialize, maybe have some adult beverages, and dance.
For over a century, dance halls flourished. But the advent of recorded music, radio, TV, and finally the Internet took its toll. In some areas, rising real estate prices and other economic factors also took hold.
Austin's Broken Spoke was one dance hall that not only survived but prospered. The high quality of the music (Country Music Hall of Famer George Strait played there regularly in his early years) and dancers, along with a steadily growing population of government and hi-tech workers and students. A huge factor in the Spoke's success was its owners James and Annetta White. James died early in 2021 and the Spoke survives. I made this short film in homage to the Spoke and its owners, hoping that if and when it finally closes, it will be remembered.
Spoke was funded by the Annenberg Foundation and premiered at the Annenberg Space for Photography in 2014.
Tickets
There are two ticket options. If you’d like to join us for the seated conversation and Spoke screening the ticket price is $70.
The book signing ticket is $60 (price of the book).
Both tickets include a signed copy of Miles and Miles of Texas.
