Ernst Haas

One of the few photographic pioneers in color photography, Ernest Haas was a Austrian born photojournalist and artist of the 1900's. He was able to do what few could do during his long career as an artist, he was able to bridge the gap between photojournalism and the use of photography as a medium for expression and creativity. Before he could become an influential and early innovator of color photography, he was doing immense amounts of work on the coverage of events around the globe after World War 2, with one of his early photographs being Austrian returning prisoners of war earning him a job offer from Life magazine, which he turned down in order to keep his independence. His images were widely disseminated by magazines like Life and Vogue and, in 1962, were the subject of the first single-artist exhibition of color photography at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. He served as president of the cooperative Magnum Photos, and his book The Creation (1971) was one of the most successful photography books ever, selling 350,000 copies.


Ernst Haas was originally uninterested in learning photography from a young age. It was only after the death of his father—whom was an avid art enthusiast and amateur— that spurred him to start making prints of old family negative. By doing this his interest for photography only grew stronger and stronger until he began taking his own photographs. Although he was a great black and white film photographer color film became an  Integral part of his photographic career, using techniques such as shallow depth of field, selective focus, and blurred motion to create evocative, metaphorical works. He earned many awards for his work and dedication to the craft. Ultimately earning him the Hasselblad award in 1986, the year of his death.

Ernst Haas's tail is one of perseverance and the never quite type of story that inspires all. For him to be able to pursue his love of art and photography despite the harsh truth of reality that at any time during the war he could lose his life just for being seen(due to his Jewish background), and yet still be able say nothing will stop me from doing what I want to do. Throughout his life Haas created many different photography and experimented to get exactly what he picture in his mind. His color film pictures are one of immense interest, but I still look back on his black and white pieces, and especially the picture of the Austrian prisoners coming home with great awe and inspiration because the emotions portrayed  the picture is so deep that it reaches to the core of a person and attempts to push past that. Truly a man of his, in his field.