One of the first things photographers learn through their camera is how to craft their own visual language. In essence, this is the foundation of the style and approaches that they use for their work. For them to establish this, they must learn to see the world and translate that through photography. Today’s photography inspiration, which examines the innovative work of Ernst Haas, should help with that.
In the video above, Alex Kilbee of The Photographic Eye turns to the work of the brilliant Austrian-American photojournalist. In his discussion, he aims to expand our ideas on how we can see the world in our own ways. As a pioneer of color photography, Ernst Haas used color film extensively at a time when it was considered inferior to black and white film for serious creative photography.
However, as Kilbee pointed out, Ernst Haas was more interested in how to see things in a new way instead of photographing new things. As such, it’s worth examining what about his way of seeing things made all the difference in his photography. Hopefully, Haas and his work will serve as a potent inspiration for you to see the extraordinary in the everyday!
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Thanks for publishing Alex Kilbee’s video about Ernst Haas. Some four decades ago, I took a workshop with Ernst at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, in Snowmass, CO. He showed a slideshow of his work which included several of images shown here and others that are new to me. He emphasized seeing the color and now, these many years later, I recognize, finally, what he was trying to teach us. Everyone who is using digital must be aware that these images were made on color transparency film, many with ISO 25 Kodachrome. The film had maybe a 1/2 stop latitude,… Read more »
In 1976 while in the process of teaching myself the fundamentals of photography, with the goal of becoming either a commercial photographer like Bert Stern or a National Geographic photographer. It all changed when I turned the page to see “Ernst Haas’s Colorful World” in the Life Library of Photography”. That single image of light blasting through the Manhattan skyline completely blew my mind! Not because it’s the greatest photo ever but it’s power and energy showed me what is possible using a camera…. Ernst Haas has been my mentor ever since…. If William Eggelston “invented color photography” than Ernst… Read more »