Hensel´s body of work provides an historical account of people´s shifting relationship to the natural landscape, and a visual record of changes resulting from practices like logging, industrialization, and development.
Hensel´s extensive portfolio of black & whites images were made mostly of 5x8” sized glass plates and developed in his Hawley, PA studio. Works prior to this period were mostly lost to a fire in his first studio. These delicate negatives have been restored as part of the Hensel Collection preserved by American Historical Images, LLC as authorized by the Hawley Library Association Inc.
Hensel´s perspective was refined by his German heritage and extensive travel across Europe and North America. German historian Dr. Erika Reygers describes the artist as a “wanderer,” yet his photographic affinity for Pennsylvania´s scenery and architecture is testament to his intimate connection to the area that he came to know as his home.
Hensel immigrated to America by way of Holland and France after fleeing from his native Germany in the early 1800s following a scandal resulting from his political action in support of the Socialist cause and the birth of a daughter out of wedlock.
Upon arrival in New York, Hensel found work as an ivory carver and engraver, using skills learned during his German education. He eventually settled on a Long Island farm. His wandering spirit soon resurfaced, and Hensel joined a traveling opera company as its first violinist, an experience which often took the artist to frontier towns along the Mississippi River.
Hensel´s long periods away from the farm did not please his Dutch-born wife and the couple´s three children. The Hensels relocated from Long Island to a farm near Port Jervis, NY, where the family felt more comfortable during his travels. Hensel spent summers on the road with the opera company and winters on the farm that he fondly named “Louisburg.”
A brief foray into Civil War service for the Union cause intervened between his opera and farm experiences. Then, financial troubles caused Hensel to leave Louisburg for residency in Hawley, PA, where he began a photographic career to support his family.
Hensel´s Main Street Hawley studio, still in existence today, featured a glass ceiling that provided natural lighting for his formal portraits, although Hensel´s true passion was for capturing images of the region´s people within the rural scenery and architecture of the time.