Ernst Haas in Black and White

Ernst Haas in Black and White is a revelation - of the sheer scope and quality of Haass work in this medium and of a vision years ahead of its time. For decades Ernst Haass name has been synonymous with color photography. A pioneer he explored colors expressive power breaking ground in works like his stunning 1971 book The Creation. His triumphs in color overshadowed a prodigious and important body of work in black and white. Only now six years after Haass death has his legacy in black-and-white photography been brought to light. The 114 photographs presented here were culled from the Haas archive through the efforts of Haass son Alexander and Haass friend Jim Hughes a distinguished editor writer and photographic critic. They were drawn from some 100 000 negatives created by Haas from 1945 into the 1960s. Over half are unpublished and many of those that were published had been lost in the rush of history. Ernst Haas started photographing in black and white as a young man during World War II when he witnessed the horrors of war within his own beloved Vienna. He found his salvation through the camera. In 1947 he created a series of photographs showing Austrian prisoners of war returning to Vienna an intensely moving documentation that was to lead in part to an invitation from Robert Capa to become one of the earliest members of Magnum. Haas then spent much of the postwar period on a personal quest to celebrate the world of freedoms so long denied him. His journeys took him to the Americas Asia the South Pacific and Europe. Whatever the subject his goal was art and poetry rather than photojournalism.