Ernst Haas – Master Photographer

Ernst Haas was one of the most influential and celebrated photographers of the 20th
century. His rules breaking, visionary work in the areas of color and motion
photography influenced a world of photographers that followed.
Haas was born in Vienna, Austria in 1921. His father was a high government
official and his mother, who was interested in the arts, encouraged young Ernst to
pursue creative endeavors. In the early 40’s he began the study of medicine, but
due to his Jewish heritage was forced to stop.
Also at this time, after studying painting, he was just beginning his study of
photography. He worked on and off at a photography lab and taught photography
classes at the Red Cross. It was here that he discovered the book The Poet’s
Camera, edited by Bryan Holme. This book included photos by Edward Weston
and their ability to transform ordinary objects into works of art.
For his 25th birthday he had acquired his first camera, a Rolleiflex, on the black
market in exchange for 10 kilograms of margarine. And just the next year, in 1947,
his work was discovered by correspondent Inge Morath and he became a
photographic correspondent with her at HEUTE magazine in Munich. His first
feature article "Homecoming Prisoners of War," photographed in his native
Vienna, and later also published by Life magazine in the United States, made him
instantly famous. The theme was of POW’s returning home from Russia to waiting
relatives in their native Vienna.
The publication of this photo essay brought Haas two invitations. One was from
Robert Capa a founder of the newly formed cooperative of international
photojournalists to join Magnum. And the other was to become a staff member at
LIFE magazine. Wanting artistic freedom, he chose Magnum and became the first
photographer to join its founders, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George
Rodger and David Seymour. This was in 1949.
This was the year that he began experimenting with color photography in the new
beginning of that medium. And then he immigrated to New York City in 1951 and
began a photo essay on New York which was later to be titled “Images of Magic
City”. This was published in 1953 by Life magazine in what was its first published
color photo essay of 24 pages over 2 issues.
In the 50’s and 60’s he would go on to produce more color essays on Venice, Paris,
and England.
In 1962 the Museum of Modern Art in New York City mounted the first solo
exhibition of color photos in its history of the best of Haas work. This was to
become the final show of photography by curator Edward Steichen. Steichen said
of Haas work, “In my estimation we have experienced an epoch in photography.
Here is a free spirit, untrammelled by tradition and theory, who has gone out and
found beauty unparalleled in photography. Some say it is an imitation of painting.
Tommyrot! Show me a painter who can bring forth the power of this boy. Let us
all stand and pay him tribute.” And Steichen’s successor, John Szarkowski, would
say, “The color in color photography has often seemed an irrelevant decorative
screen between the viewer and the fact of the picture. Ernst Haas has resolved this
conflict by making the color sensation itself the subject matter of his world. No
photographer has worked more successfully to express the sheer physical joy of
seeing."
After his extensive early explorations in color photography Haas began to create
photos that showed movement. He used slower shutter speeds and camera
movement during the exposure to create a blur that exposed the essence of the
subject he was photographing.

In 1964 he became an assistant director of John Huston’s film “The Bible” and
directed “The Creation” sequence. This was the beginning of his work on his most
famous book and the bestselling color photography book of its time, The Creation.
Published in 1971 it would go on to sell more than 350,000 copies.
Having been introduced to Haas work in the Time Life series of books on
photography, in which he was the featured photographer of the volume on color, I
discovered this book in a religious bookstore in Isla Vista a couple of years after I
moved to Santa Barbara to attend UCSB. I couldn’t afford to purchase it, but I
would go there frequently to look at it. And then later when I moved for a year
back down to Santa Ana to live with my dad, I would drive to the Cypress library,
about 20 miles away when gas was still inexpensive, to check it out from the
library. And as you weren’t allowed to renew books over the phone, I’d go back
time and time again to renew it until someone else would reserve it. This now out
of print book is my favorite photography book of all time and I now own two
copies. Its photos radiate the beauty of the natural world. Photo after photo is just
astoundingly, overwhelmingly beautiful.
In 1975 Haas published his second book, In America, which was commissioned for
the bicentennial and he thought of it as “a love letter” to his adopted country. He
would go on to publish books “In Germany” in 1976 and then “Himalayan
Pilgrimage” in 1978 which was reflective of his growing interest in spiritual
matters.
Ernst Haas died of a stroke in 1986 at age 65. During his lifetime his work was
shown in more than 30 solo exhibitions in the United States, Europe, Japan, and
South America.
Ernst Haas work, like the Expressionist painters of his time, captured the essence
of its subject. It wasn’t concerned with representing things literally. He saw the
beauty in the world around us with a penetrating vision. He had the soul of a poet.

Famous quotes by Ernst Haas:

“A picture is the expression of an impression. If the beautiful were not in us, how would we ever
recognize it?”
Ernst Haas

“All I wanted was to connect my moods with those of Paris. Beauty paints and when it painted
most, I shot.”
Ernst Haas

“I am not interested in shooting new things - I am interested to see things new.”

Ernst Haas

“There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for
what we see is what we are.”
Ernst Haas

Other famous photographer’s quotes on Ernst Haas:

“For me Ernst was sensitivity itself. He had an irresistible charm and wit, a knowledge of the
world, its color, its stratis ficatious since its origin, various cultures he expressed so vividly in
his photographs. He disappeared swiftly like a comet leaving behind a long trail of human
understanding and with such finesse. I can hear him bursting out laughing and making fun of me
if he read this.”
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Photographer.
“He made us see his color. When some photographers take pictures, it doesn’t matter whether
they are working in black-and-white or color. But when Ernst shoots color, it makes all the
difference in the world.”
Cornell Capa, International Center for Photography.

“He’s been incredibly copied since the very beginning. The trouble is the most Ernst’s imitators
over the years have been photographically vulgar and obvious, and in a way that’s reduced his
work retroactively, which is a shame. But his own eye and sense of observation are
undiminished. He just does it better than all of them.”
Elliott Erwitt, Photographer.

Dear Ernst Haas:

I wish I could tell you how much I appreciated your color photographs which you projected at
the Asilomar Conference. I have seen thousands of color pictures; most I dislike for various
reasons – sheer dullness to sheer decadence! The particular quality of your work was
refreshment. I hope you know what I mean. The pseudo- abstract stuff which clutters so much of
the contemporary art world contributes little to the spirit. Your work – although your sources
were both simple natural situations and simple “junk” – possesses a direct quality of beauty
which thoroughly transcends “subject.” My congratulations! (...) I am very happy you exist.
Photography is a better art because of you exist. Can I say more? No! Please come out here and
stay awhile with us. Again, thanks.
Ansel Adams

“While I was attending a bullfight in Arles in the late 1950s, Pablo Picasso showed me an issue
of Life magazine in which the famous photograph of a bullfight by Ernst Haas, at low speed and
showing the movement, was reproduced. Picasso was an enthusiast and wanted me to see it
because I was doing bullfights in black-and-white. The name Ernst Haas was already in my
head. Then ‘The Creation’ was published, and I was even more enthusiastic. It was after this
publication that I dedicated myself more to color.
Ernst was a superb artist and a master of color. With the high level of culture and the heritage of
his European roots, he was able to bring an anonymous landscape to the level of masterpiece of
color and perfect composition. No one will be able to replace a man with such a vision, a deep
sense of nature, the magic of the earth, and his relationship with the cosmos.”
Lucien Clerge, Photographer

“Ernst was my friend even before I met him. I had seen his color work in Life magazine and in a
show at the Museum of Modern Art. At a time when color photography was confined to reality,
Ernst was pushing at walls I didn’t even know existed. He was controlling color and breaking
every rule of color photography. Eliot Porter was also embracing the world of color, but it was
Ernst who threw the gauntlet down and challenged me. The sheer beauty of what Ernst did was
in the fact that he used his sensitivity to see. If there was motion, it was motion for a reason.
While Minor White would see an abstract close-up of peeling paint as a surreal landscape in
black-and-white, Ernst would shoot a piece of rag on a street and it would become a three-
dimensional color vision. Ernst would never use color just for the drama of color. He used color
with feeling and with reason. For me, Ernst Haas will always be the father of modern color
photography.”
Pete Turner, Photographer.