Photography: Ernst Haas - Essay Example

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” (cited in Coleman). At the beginning of his carrier, Haas did not seem a remarkable photographer and was not very influential in the world of photography. He was a self-taught photographer, who was learning the nuts and bolts of this art slowly and thoroughly.

The main part of his early works was still lifes. Moving further in his study, he gradually became interested in the colored photo (Manchester). Ernst was recognized and rewarded for the series of photos of inmates that were created during his work as a photojournalist. It is obvious that the best reward for his, as for any other photographer, was the membership in Magnum. If to look at this more thoroughly, it becomes clear that this work was his ticket to the world of art and brought many grateful admirers all over the world.

Haas likes to make experiments. “Every one of us wants to take beautiful, striking, extraordinary pictures. Every one of us is struggling with his own style. Changes don’t come purely by will power alone, but they never come by being satisfied. Let us be more critical with each other: it will bring us closer. Let us find a new common denominator in the struggle, not to follow our own standards of the invention. Don’t cover—discover” (Ernst Haas: «The Master of Visual Genesis»).

All the time during his work in reporting shooting, he was inventing something original and unusual.