Ernst Haas
- Austrian-American photographer who lived in New York
(born in Vienna on March 2, 1921, began working at Magnum in 1949 and settled in New York in 1951, received the Hasselblad award in 1986, died on September 12, 1986 in NYC) - Early B&W reportage works of returning prisoners in post-war Vienna brought attention of LIFE magazine
- At the invitation of Robert Capa, Haas joined Magnum developing close associations with Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Werner Bishof
- Colour pioneer (In 1953 LIFE magazine published his groundbreaking 24-page color photo essay on New York City; In 1962 a retrospective of his work was the first fully color photography exhibition held at MoMA)
- Used Kodachrome film
- Altered perception through his use of colour, close-ups and off-center compositions, chiaroscuro, out of focus effects, reflection, superposition and motion blurs. As a painter Haas increasingly favoured the motif of the image within the image, distinctive use of colours and abstract forms!
- Dye-transfer and chromogenic prints
“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
“No photographer has worked more successfully to express the sheer physical joy of seeing.”
– John Szarkowski
"I am not interested in shooting new things - I am interested to see things new." – Ernst Haas
“Best wide-angle lens? Two steps backward. Look for the ‘ah-ha’.”
– Ernst Haas
“Only a vision – that is what one must have.” – Ernst Haas
“The best pictures differentiate themselves by nuances… a tiny
relationship – either a harmony or a disharmony – that creates a picture.”
— Ernst Haas
"In every artist there is poetry. In every human being there is the poetic element. We know, we feel, we believe."
– Ernst Haas
“We can write the new chapters in a visual language whose prose and poetry will need no translation.”
– Ernst Haas
"Style has no formula, but it has a secret key. It is the extension of your personality."
– Ernst Haas
"You don’t take pictures, the good ones happen to you."
– 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
"Bored with obvious reality, I find my fascination in transforming it into a subjective point of view. Without touching my subject I want to come to the moment when, through pure concentration of seeing, the composed picture becomes more made than taken. Without a descriptive caption to justify its existence, it will speak for itself - less descriptive, more creative; less informative, more suggestive - less prose, more poetry."
– Ernst Haas
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“Every work of art has its necessity; find out your very own. Ask yourself if you would do it if nobody would ever see it, if you would never be compensated for it, if nobody ever wanted it. If you come to a clear ‘yes’ in spite of it, then go ahead and don’t doubt it anymore.”
– Ernst Haas
Books
"Ernst Haas: Color Correction" by William A Ewing