The consecutive issues of LIFE Magazine, of 14 and 21 September 1953 contained the clarion call of a new fine art. Ernst Haas invented Modern Color Small-Format Photography, showing that color photographs could be, in fact, fine art. “New York in Color” documents the first decade of those photographs that set the new standard for what color photographs could be and how the art world would eventually be forced to consider them.
His photoessays, “Images of a Magic City I and II,” broke new ground for LIFE in two ways. LIFE had never published so many images before in a photoessay, nor had they published two essays in sequential issues on the same subject.
The world’s understanding of color photographs as art changed with those two essays. LIFE continued to publish double essays of Haas’s on motion in 1958 and many other color and black-and-white essays in LIFE and many other magazines throughout the world. Haas became one of the most recognized and lauded photographers in the mid-20th Century and an inspiration to at least two generations of professional and amateur photographers.
It is important to understand the most important factor in Haas’s accomplishment. It was not his masterful use of his Leicas and Kodachrome film, but the way he saw. His Eye was that of a master visual artist, knowledgeable in all the visual art developments swirling around Europe from the 19th and mid-20th Centuries. Instead of canvasses, brushes, and pigments, he framed with the Leica rangefinder and reflex cameras’ viewfinders in the 24 mm x 36 mm, or 35 mm format. He Saw images in Dadaist, Fauvist, Surrealist, Impressionist, Cubist, Abstract, Abstract Expressionist, and all the other visual disciplines in his environment; yes, Classical as well. Beginning upon his arrival in the USA in 1951, that first environment was New York City. It is those first two or so years of his starting to use Kodachrome I, a slow ISO-8 transparency film, that LIFE found worthy of an extraordinary introduction of a new photographer, a new way of seeing, and a new fine art.
Haas’s Eye, the way he saw, is truly unique. He single handedly raised the bar for using the camera viewfinder frame to see and produce color art photographs. Until Haas’s arrival, color photographs were denigrated as snap shots or straight forward recordings of events and places, or used in commercials and advertising.
Probably he stands alone in the range of manners by which he saw and recorded. This reviewer knows of no other photographer who made jaw-dropping images demonstrating mastery in so many artistic visual disciplines, so comprehensively, and with such versatility. His production included film stills and consulting, advertising, portraiture, commercial work, editorial, journalistic, documentary, and, last but not least, his own private work, highlighted in the earlier book, “Color Correction.” So many times this reviewer has wondered, “What kind of an eye could see like that, and, more, know how to use the camera-lens-film system to capture what was in his mind’s eye.
Enough, now, of the prefatory remarks; time to turn to the book itself. This is a beautiful book. It has most, if not all, of the LIFE essay images, and well over a hundred more, many from his private takes, never before published. The images encompass many famous Haas themes, such as straight photography, abstracts, motion, multiple exposures on one film frame, and numerous other techniques. Some visual themes show up in other of his books and essays. The cover photo reminds me of the German woman dressed in white leaving a white building, on page 4 of his book, “In Germany.” On page 142 in the new book, “Vertical reflection” reminds me of images 52 and 54 in his landmark book, “The Creation.” He captures the street, impressions, details close and far, reflections that defy comprehension, pure abstracts, the lot.
These images are of one enthralled with, in love with, his new city. The imagination evident in the earliest of these images is of one who struggled to see in his new environment, so different in all dimensional and visual aspects than Vienna and the other European cities he knew. They show how hard he strove to master his new visual world and prepare the reader/viewer to anticipate his future work in so many disparate fields of endeavor.
Phillip Prodger's essay is his second in a book of Haas's images, "Color Correction" being his first. He gives us new facts and information on Haas's development in NYC and as a visualist of the first order. Both of his essays read together offer a deeply knowledgeable understanding of his subject.
This book will sell out quickly. Haas’s star has been rising rapidly since the debut of “Color Correction.” Younger photographers and art lovers are rediscovering the pure, almost spiritual beauty of his work. Great job, all who worked this project, and thank you for another major contribution to understanding Ernst Haas and his fabulous Eye.
More thoughts after going through the images several times over a number of weeks:
Despite Kodachrome being a color transparency film, Haas seems often to use color almost like B&W. The color palettes of most images are quite constrained, often muted, even monochromatic. The restrained palette is an artifact of what is there in a large city. He underexposes a lot; that concentrates the viewer's eye on the color he's interested in, removing a lot of detail from the shadows and other distractions, which too much or too many colors can create.
Known for its deep, rich reds, Kodachrome also gives the skilled user deep, rich blacks. And Haas uses black masterfully, very often using large masses and lines of dense blacks to organize the image. Many images use only or primarily blacks, whites, reds and yellows, other hues not being used at all or very sparingly. He gets a lot of mileage from those four colors. Red or yellow are the dominant, monochromatic hues, too, of many pictures. Blues, when present, are most often portions of sky or shadows with a blue cast. Greens occur only occasionally, most often muted. Bright greens are rare accents and spots, often a street light.
This very controlled use of color is not typical of early or later color photographers. As I look again through his books and articles going back to the 1970s, I see the colorfulness expanding in manners appropriate to the subjects, but still in a controlled way. Haas's photos are always easy to look at in large numbers, unlike the work of so many photographers of the post-Velvia era who brighten colors to the point of visual pain after a few images. The calmness of his color correlates with the spiritual purity of the beauty in his photographs.
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