Ernst Haas
1929 - 1986
Home page: http://www.ernst-haas.com
Archive contacts: Victoria Haas (actoria@aol.com), Alexander Haas (Alex@alexhaas.com)
Ernst Haas (Austrian, b. March 3, 1929 - d. September 12, 1986) was born in Vienna, Austria, the second son of Frederika and Ernst Haas. When his father died in 1940, the young Haas began printing from his father's old negatives and became interested in photography. Although he studied medicine, he was prohibited from practicing due to his Jewish Ancestry. He acquired his first camera, a Rolleiflex, on the black market, trading 10 kilograms of margarine that he had received for his 25th birthday. He began photographing and teaching photography for the American Red Cross. In 1949, he began working for HEUTE with correspondent and friend Inge Morath. This important friendship lasted a lifetime. His first feature article on returning Viennese prisoners of war was published in HEUTE and later picked up by LIFE. On the basis of this story, Wilson Hicks, picture editor of LIFE, offered him a job as a staff photographer, which he declined. At the invitation of Robert Capa he joined Magnum and developed close associations with Capa, Bishop and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Capa, in particular, encouraged him to pursue his own vision. He began shooting with a Leica and experimenting with the first color films.
In the early 1950s Haas moved to New York City where he served as a member of the Executive Committee at Magnum. In 1953 LIFE chose his 24 page color essay "Images of a Magic City," as its first major color story, and Haas went on to become the premier color photographer of the day. In 1957 LIFE published "Beauty in the Brutal Art," photographs of a bullfight in Spain. This marked the beginning of his motion studies and the first time this type of color photography was published.
In 1962 New York's Museum of Modern Art mounted its first solo color exhibition of Ernst Haas photographs. That same year he produced a four-part series, "The Art of Seeing," for public television. In 1964 Haas was second director for the movie The Bible, produced by Dino de Laurentis and directed by John Huston. He was responsible for the photography on "The Creation" section. Inspired by this experience, Haas published The Creation (1971, Viking), which would eventually sell over 300,000 copies. Excerpts were printed in major photographic magazines. Haas published In America (1975), In Germany (1977), and after many trips to Nepal, Himalayan Pligrimage with text by Gisela Minke (1978, Viking).
Ernst Haas received the prestigious Hasselblad award in 1986. Sadly, he passed away in New York prior to the award ceremony. He left behind a legacy of over 250,000 color transparencies and 100,000 negatives. His estate is managed by his son Alexander Haas and his daughter Victoria Haas. His negatives are stored at Getty Images (London).