Hank Orenstein was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1957. He remembers loving nature and hiking as a child, and watching his mother paint landscapes and still lifes. He studied art privately, and attended classes at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan.

Orenstein holds a Liberal Arts Degree from Coe College, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he studied photography, theater, art history, literature and creative writing. He holds a Master's Degree in Social Work from the University of Iowa. In 1986, he returned to New York City, where he has worked as an advocate for children in family court, an administrator of a shelter for homeless families in The Bronx,and a project director for the New York City Public Advocate, the city's second ranking official after the Mayor.

In 1994, Orenstein learned that he had a congenital heart defect and would have to undergo open heart surgery. He recovered quickly from the surgery, but his brush with mortality sensitized him to life's fragilities as well as its possibilities. In his art, Orenstein finds both beauty and disquietude. He experiences photography as a way of achieving an important balance in his life.

Orenstein experimented with creative photomicrography (photography through the microscope) from 1995-1998, and had his first solo exhibition at the Pleiades Gallery for Contemporary Art in Manhattan in March, 1999. In the Fall, 2000, he had a solo exhibition of his landscape photography at the Pleiades Gallery. He has participated in several group shows in New York City and in Munich, Germany, and his work has been published in Downeast, the magazine of Maine. He has donated work to various charities and institutions, including the Comprehensive Cancer Center at St. Vincent's Hospital, the "How&When&Where" newsletter for homeless families, and Public School 166 in Manhattan.

Hank Orenstein lives in Manhattan in the heart of New York City. He presently works professionally as a New York City Tour Guide and Real Estate Sales Agent at Prudential Douglas Elliman.