Ernst Haas

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Ernst Haas

American, 1921 - 1986

Birth LocationAustria

BiographyErnst Haas (1921-1986) was an acclaimed Austrian-American photographer and photojournalist whose innovations in color film photography remain influential today. Haas' photographs, whether in black and white or color, reflect his goal of elevating emotional content as a key component of documentary photography.

Born in Vienna, Austria in 1921 to a middle-class family, Haas initially studying medicine from 1939-40. He then enrolled in Vienna's Graphic Arts Institute to study photography and film in 1941. His Jewish heritage, however, prevented him from working in either industry under Nazi rule but he resumed his pursuit of a photographic career after World War II, famously trading a large margarine block for his first professional camera in 1945. After initially making poetic, abstracted images of water, plants, and reflections, Haas began photographing life in Vienna as it emerged from the war. His early series documenting Austrian prisoners of war returning home caught Life magazine's attention, who published the resulting photo essay in their August 1949 issue. He subsequently joined the emerging cooperative photojournalists' agency, Magnum Photos (founded 1947), that aimed to connect each member photographer's work to commercial outlets while avoiding direct employment under newspaper or magazine editors. Haas remained with the organization until 1961 and served as its president from 1959-60.

Throughout his career, Haas' work appeared in many leading magazines including Life, Vogue, Esquire, and Look, and he published four photographic series as books: The Creation (1971), In America (1975), In Germany (1976), and Himalayan Pilgrimage (1978). His work is exhibited regularly and the International Center of Photography, New York (1992); Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz, Austria (1996); Portland Museum of Art (2011); and the Photo History Museum, Tokyo (2019); among others, organized recent solo exhibitions. Haas' photography is represented in many museum collections, including the Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna; Tate Britain, London; National Portrait Gallery, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

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