Ernst Haas - Introduction To Photography

Introduction To Photography

Haas was uninterested in learning photography as a child, though his father—an avid amateur—tried to share his interest. Upon his father’s death in 1940, however, Haas first entered the darkroom, learning to print old family negatives. His interest grew, and he soon began to take his own photographs.

Though his formal education was complicated by the war, Haas was an autodidact and worked tirelessly to learn the medium. In 1941 as the “school photographer” of the Max Reinhardt Film Seminar, he managed to attend technical classes and developed a lifelong interest in filmmaking. Haas also took advantage of his family’s extensive library, as well as museums and libraries in Vienna. He studied philosophy and poetry, in particular, both of which informed Haas’s beliefs about the creative potential for photography.

A Poet’s Camera (1949), which combined poetry with metaphoric imagery by artists like Edward Weston, was particularly important to Haas’s early development. Many of his first extant photographs—close-ups of plants, water, and natural forms—reflect its influence.

Unsure of his career path, Haas realized that photography could provide both a means of support and a vehicle for communicating his ideas. He obtained his first camera in 1946, at the age of 25, trading a 20-pound block of margarine for a Rolleiflex on the Vienna black market. Of the decision, he later said,

I never really wanted to be a photographer. It slowly grew out of the compromise of a boy who desired to combine two goals—explorer or painter. I wanted to travel, see and experience. What better profession could there be than the one of a photographer, almost a painter in a hurry, overwhelmed by too many constantly changing impressions? But all my inspirational influences came much more from all the arts than from photo magazines.

In 1947 Haas presented his first exhibition at the American Red Cross in Vienna, where he had a part-time position teaching soldiers photography. Taking a portfolio of his work to Zurich, he drew the interest of Arnold Kübler, an editor for the seminal magazine DU. After reviewing his photographs, Kübler introduced Haas to Swiss photographer Werner Bischof’s images of Berlin after the war. Bishof’s work was a revelation; inspired by its example, Haas began to consider how an image could simultaneously tell a story and function as an autonomous work of art. When Haas returned home, he similarly documented the war’s effects in Vienna, approaching the city as a serious reporter with a keen but empathetic eye. His photographs show the endurance of the human spirit despite the devastated urban environment.

Haas’s photographic output matured rapidly. He earned assignments from magazines like Heute, often working with fellow correspondent Inge Morath. In 1947, while scouting locations for a fashion shoot, Haas and Morath witnessed prisoners of war disembarking a train and began documenting their arrival. Haas’s images show the anticipation and grief of people searching for their lost relatives among the survivors. The resulting photo essay, “Homecoming,” was published in both Heute and Life magazine.