He was born in the Russian Empire to Baltic German and American parents and spent his working life in France, England and the United States.
Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia on September 4, 1900, Hoyningen-Huene was the only son of Baron Barthold Theodor Hermann (Theodorevitch) von Hoyningen-Huene (1859-1942), a Baltic nobleman, military officer and lord of Navesti manor (near Võhma), and his wife, Emily Anne "Nan" Lothrop (1860-1927), a daughter of George Van Ness Lothrop, an American minister to Russia.
[2] By 1925 George had already worked his way up to chief of photography of the French Vogue where he was mentor to up-and-coming photographers including François Tuefferd.
In 1931 he met Horst, the future photographer, who became his lover and frequent model and traveled to England with him that winter.
He published two art books on Greece and Egypt before relocating to Hollywood, where he earned a living by shooting glamorous portraits for the film industry.