Book Review: 'Ernst Haas: New York in Color 1952–1962'

Continuing our little tour of recent "Books o' Interest" that I have actually seen, we move up the ladder from yesterday with a more recommendable book: the wonderful Ernst Haas: New York in Color, 1952–62. The Austrian immigrant was the first color photographer ever to receive a solo exhibition at MoMA, and his New York pictures were featured in LIFE magazine in 1953 in two successive issues, the first time that had been done.

Disclaimer: Yr. Hmbl. Reviewer has a distinct attraction to the culture of what used to be called "Midcentury" America and will very soon need to start being called "Mid-20th-century" America. Also, I love Kodachrome, which was to Haas like oil paints were to Claude Monet. So there's those things to take into account.

Ernst Haas, Untitled, 1952, page 87 in the book

I'm guessing this is going to be a very enjoyable little book for a lot of people. Haas himself said, "I want to be remembered more by a total vision than a few single pictures." In '52–'62 you get an ideal tour through that total vision as it relates to NYC. The reproductions are excellent; there is not a single picture that is violated by the gutter; the color is neither exaggerated nor subdued; there is little chance of any clandestine Photoshoppery; the book is big enough, but not too big to comfortably handle; there is a generous number of pictures (I count 173) without imparting the sense that they threw in everything they can find; the editing, both spread by spread (broken every now and then by a single picture with a blank page opposite) and in terms of the flow from start to finish, is astute and sensitive, very well done; and Phillip Prodger's essay is informative and nicely written. He doesn't even shy away from technical points that will be of interest to some of us (many academics think that's slumming, somehow): for example, Phillip Prodger says Haas shot most of these pictures with a particular kind of Kodachrome Professional daylight film that had a speed of ASA (now ISO) 8(!). Rather than be defeated by this, Haas embraced blur, "...making what others might have seen as shortcomings an integral part of his work." A good example of a specific stage of technical development becoming an indivisible element of the aesthetic vision of its era.

Note the just-right amount of white space, titles and page numbers on the same pages instead of listed in the back of the book. This is how photographers like to see photographs presented in books. Speaking for myself anyway.

I'd even venture to say that this is very close to an ideal photobook by my standards. Maybe the public wants more flash and splash, but what we get is a direct and respectfully presented view of one talented and sensitive photographer and what he did with a camera. Ernst's son Alex Haas (who wrote the Foreword) and Phillip Prodger (who is Senior Research Scholar at the Yale Center for British Art, and used to be Head of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, London), have done a splendid and fault-free job here. Every photobook should be so no-nonsense. I'd love to hear what Gordon Lewis, Ken Tanaka [check], Joe Holmes, Mike Chisholm [check], Mike Plews [check], and Rodger Kingston (among others) think of it and whether they agree, but personally I'd put this on the short list of titles that dedicated color photographers might want to have on their shelves.

The book is a good introduction to Ernst Haas, who I've always thought of as a "photographer's photographer." Literally, in that photo enthusiasts are the ones most likely to appreciate him fully. Although he was famous and celebrated in his day, he was too popular for some. You gotta be a shooter, baby, to get how good a shooter this guy was. Haas, I think we will all agree, had chops to burn. For us, that doesn't grow old.

Faced with the task of finding something to criticize, I guess I'll say that I don't really cotton to the cover picture much. (You can see it up top.) For one thing, it has only two little incidental patches of warm color in it, and is otherwise almost entirely composed of blacks and whites—a tad odd for a book with "color" in the title. But it's fine, actually. I don't mind it.

In short, this is a treat. When I started writing this post I had to go retrieve the book from a place right next to my armchair. It's been there because I've paged through it numerous times purely for the joy of it, when I put aside reading and want to relax a bit. Another Haas quote: "Color is joy. One does not think joy. One is carried by it."

Of course, you'll already know Ernst Haas and whether you like him or not; and you'll take into account my prejudices that I disclosed at the top of the post. If those things or the vintage and subject of the pictures don't put you off for any reason, then this is warmly recommended. I've already gotten my money's worth out of my copy. Oh, and speaking of which: Ernst Haas: New York in Color, 1952–62 is affordably priced, too. It's not one of those $40 books priced at $80. It's a $40 book priced less than that. (Note the current cost of the earlier 2011 Color Correction. Whew. Glad I bought that when I could.)

Fine book all around. Quintessential. This one stays.

Mike

P.S. Elliott Erwitt has a nice picture of his friend Ernst looking through a viewfinding device that looks like the cylinder of a revolver. You can see it at this link. Just a classic Erwitt picture that sticks in my head is all.

Book o' the Week

Larry Clark, Tulsa. A classic of 20th century photography. Teenage Lust (NSFW) was always the hard title to get—$500+ for the paperback right now—but it wears its voyeurism too much on its sleeve. I have them both, and Tulsa, IMHO, is the better book. Available at a good price right now, but not always. Get it while it's cheap.

This book link is a portal to Amazon.

Today at B&H Photo

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Patrick: "For those of us who don't know anything, what is 'the gutter'?"

Mike replies: Good question. The inner edges of the two facing pages of an opened book.

Here's a photograph "run across the gutter" (this is the McCurry book I reviewed a few days ago). Visually, the gutter creates a false graphic element; portions of the picture become difficult to see; and the gutter destroys the graphic integrity of the view as a unified whole. Here's something closer to what the above photograph looks like. You can see how the gutter interferes with your ability to "look into" a scene, as if through a "window," which is one of the baseline ways a photograph functions.

Crossing the gutter was a design trick originally used primarily in magazines, which at least tend to lie more flat. In most layout programs, the gutter is represented by a single vertical line dividing in half the rectangle of the double-page spread. Designers should know better than to cross the gutter, especially in books (because they don't lie as flat as magazines), especially in books of photographs, especially in books where the photographs are the main point, but they're often seduced into thinking that larger = greater impact. (Quote by Paul Rand, who taught design at Yale: "If you can't make it good, make it big.")

In some cases, running a picture across the gutter also means that the two split parts of the same picture can be printed on two different sheets through the press, which sometimes results in the color or density not being consistent across the same photograph.

In certain examples the visual damage of crossing the gutter is relatively trivial, for instance a magazine advertisement where all the information is on one side of the picture and there's nothing but more background across the gutter, but I've seen some hilarious fails, such as a gutter running right through a face, such that the each eye is on a different side, the nose disappears, and it seems as though the head is unnaturally skinny.

(The rest of the Paul Rand quote is, "And if you can't make it big, make it RED!", but that part doesn't pertain here.)

Kenneth Tanaka: "There’s little I can add to your comments, Mike. I pre-ordered this book from Prestel months before it was published…and it was absolutely worth the wait.

"As most regular TOP readers probably know I’m thoroughly devoted to color photography. Actually I should state that as 'color in photography.' [Ken was one of the sponsors who made the show and book Color Rush possible in 2013. —Ed.] The historic artistry of monochrome photography is undeniable. But color is the medium’s third dimension, with its ability to add powerful inflective gestures impossible with grayscale. Ernst Haas and a handful of other mid-century photographers genuinely grasped the use of color's inflective powers at a time when the color photo medium was still costly, inflexible, and failure-prone. (Which is why nearly all the early color masters were also trained commercial photographers). Yes, some of the characteristics of that color (mainly the palettes) were resultants of the Kodachrome medium of the day. But Haas knew exactly where he was laying-in the color to make his paintings. If you want to test this thesis try converting any one of Haas’s color images to B&W. It’s like looking at a zombie. The form and composition remain apparent but it’s like listening to a high schooler read Shakespeare.

"I can offer no higher praise for Ernst Haas: New York in Color 1952–1962 than to report that it lives on my 'special' shelf where the most frequently viewed selections of my 750+ volume photo book library live. And rare has been the week that I’ve not looked at this book since it arrived.

"For anyone wanting another affordable book with a wider view of other masterful (mostly) mid-century color work try New York in Color by photo historian / curator Bob Shamis (Abrams, 2011). It’s an excellent survey of color imagery of New York made by Haas and many other very renowned photographers. And it’s also designed simply with one large plate per page! New York in Color also lives on my 'special' shelf, by the way."

JTK: "I love this book! I also have it out next to my chair."

Lawrence Plummer: "Thanks for this reference, Mike! I took your advice 11 years ago, getting Color Correction (the current used price!!!) and quickly picked up this one. Thanks again!"

Robert Stahl: "Mike, wonderful review of Ernst Haas: New York in Color, 1952–1962. He was, indeed, a 'poet' with a camera. Had the opportunity to take in one of his photo lectures many years ago in the Pacific NW. After his talk he played three audio/visual programs on flowers, abstracts, and Venice, Italy that were totally captivating! This coming July, Steidl is publishing a new book on him titled Ernst Haas: Abstrakt. Cartier-Bresson in his book The Mind's Eye paid tribute to him with the following words: "For me Ernst was sensitivity itself; he had an irresistible charm and wit, a knowledge of the world, its color...He disappeared swiftly like a comet leaving behind a long trail of human understanding and with such finesse.'"

Comments

[Albert Smith]

"...Also, I love Kodachrome, which was to Haas like oil paints..."

When I look at the second image, it reminds me how much that I dislike HDR images that seem to be so over used today. I too came up on Kodachrome (and later Fujifilm E6 emulsions) and I loved to utilize shadows as negative space. Just three stops of exposure in contrasty light would do it and you could make a subject pop from a cluttered environment.

No way that second image would be improved by more clarity in the shadows.

[Tom Duffy]

I first saw Ernst Haas' work in the 15th Edition of the Leica Manual from 1973 (the one that extolled the virtues of the Leica M5). There was a center color section of the manual devoted to his work. Very subdued color rendition and lots of blur. I have enjoyed his work ever since.

[John Krill]

The only complaint I have is the book itself, as with most photo books, it is a portrait mode book. Aren't most photos in landscape mode? Mine are.

Then I had to laugh because 4 of the 5 photos in this post are portrait.

Just can't win, can I.

[Mike Chisholm]

Woah, name check! Since you ask, I don't own the book, and I don't buy photo-books during Lent (heh... Actually, I'm not supposed to be buying any more at all, ever, if I know what's good for me), but from what I can see it does look nicely put together (Prestel know what they're doing). I'll check it out.

However, I'll be boring and say I generally find that Saul Leiter has sated my appetite for the chiaroscuro of mid-century North American cities (I think you're going to hear that a lot), and when it comes to books of masterful colour photography Luigi Ghirri's "Kodachrome" is where I turn for inspiration. What a book! The introduction has also been hilariously badly translated from Italian, which always lifts my spirits.

Mike

[Stan B.]

Re "If you can't make it good, make it big"...

If you can’t take good pictures... take lots!

[Mike plews]

I have In America and The Creation on the shelf and they are treasures.
What I get from Hass is the sheer joy of photography.
Harry Callahans color does the same thing to me.

[Jeff]

One thing I admire about Haas is that he was also a very talented black and white photographer; a rare quality even among the greats. See the book, Ernst Haas In Black and White. (Quite the opposite of the dreadful book, in my humble opinion, Ansel Adams in Color.) And of course Haas’ color work was exceptional. My photo book collection is comprised almost exclusively of black and white photographers; Haas is a rare exception.

[Keith Cartmell]

Well, that was easy. It's on hold at the library. I'm number one in line. I love being able to look at books before buying. I've currently reading and thinking about The Photographer's Vision by Michael Freeman, and might well buy it.

[scott kirkpatrick]

I could have sworn that I already had "New York in Color" when I read your writeup. But I found a different book by that title, and a different book by Haas as well, that I had purchased on a TOP recommendation long ago. Ken Tanaka pointed out my other New York in Color, and I've ordered the new Haas. Sitting next to them was "Color Rush, a long time period overview which I can also recommend. It was put together by the same team that produced the Life Magazine exhibit at the Princeton Art Museum a year or two ago.

[Andrew Molitor]

Sally Mann's "Immediate Family" uses the gutter specifically to indicate alternate crops, which is genius.

I've never seen anyone else do this.

[Q]

You move markets, Mike: As I write this, Amazon lists this as the #1 bestseller in "Photography History." I'm about to place my order.