The two brothers lived in two major European cities - Evgeny in Berlin and Yakov in Leningrad - during a crucial period in history and shared many themes and compositions in their photography.
[4][5] The Archive is valued as a historical and cultural artifact, an important collection of vernacular photography, as well as an affecting testament to life in Europe in the interwar period.
A selection of 142 photographs was shown to the public for the first time in an exhibition in 2017 at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, entitled “The Henkin Brothers: A Discovery.
[14] The exhibition was curated by Dr. Dimitri Ozerkov and installed at the General Staff Building as one of a series of events organized by the State Hermitage to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1917 revolutions.
Bloomberg wrote: "Rarely has an exhibition made more sense, or seemed more clever, than the juxtaposition of photographs by the brothers Evgeny and Yakov Henkin.
),[48] was released by Les Editions Noir sur Blanc, a Swiss-French publishing house and a part of the Libella Group, on 24 October 2019.
The book also has an introduction by Gueorgui Pinkhassov and articles by Daniel Girardin, Lorraine de Meaux, Denis Maslov, and Olga Walther.
The main objective of the HBAA is to bring the Henkin brothers' creative heritage to public and specialist attention and to disseminate information about the two photographers, their lives and times, and the indelible images they left behind.
The HBAA seeks to preserve and conserve the negatives contained in the Archive, as well as to organize and to collaborate on exhibitions, publications, research projects, presentations, and other activities.