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Ernst Haas, Photographer


mooky

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It happened to come to my attention that maybe many Leica Forum readers/members may not have heard of, or seen any of Ernst Haas images. He passed away some years ago - but he did some great work with Leicaflex SL's and the early glass. Much of his work was color, shot on transparency film.

 

If anyone wants to see what the old glass looked like - what the R glass visual character was back then, or if you just want to see a Master's work look up ernst-haas.com. Too, his work will show just how nice the glass was, and still is. "In Germany", "In America", "The Creation" are some of my favorites - I hope to get a copy of "Himilayan Pilgrimage", either way, he really captured the 'Leica look'. A true inspiration in my early Leica years. He appeared in several Leica advertisements back in the 1970's.

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All Kodachrome, so good in fact, it really shows that digital is not all it is cracked up to be.

 

If you can find them, the books "The Creation" and "Ernst Haas: Color Photography" are spectacular reproductions of his work, I own both.

 

I have 180 rolls of Kodachrome 25 I am using with Haas images in mind....

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That panorama was something like 30 feet wide wasn't it? I think it was an image of Thomson Gazelles? (sp) ,,,,,,,,I think he used a 50 Summicron.

 

Yes, indeed, it was mostly Kodachrome. Boy I would love to be shooting with nothing but Kodachrome again. There's no screwing around when you shoot it - you always had to be spot on and in the zone. I even tried it in my Pentax 67 but then they dropped it.

 

Yes, Ernst Haas was, and deserves more accolades still - I hope many others will discover his 'Leica work'. Excellent and spot on with the digital reference compared to Kodachrome.

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Check out his work and figure it out.

 

Haas was a great photographer who happened to use Leicas - and the early glass is still relevant and very usable - viewing his work is a great way to LEARN about a great image taker and how the glass was used.

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I probably would not have ever picked up a camera if two things had not happened:

The first was that a friend of mine encouraged me to try photography when I was trying to find an "outlet"; the second was when I saw a copy of "the Creation". That book just floored me with the images, I'm still inspired every time I pick it up.

Haas could [and did] make great images with any camera/film combination.

But, I think that the combination of Leica glass and Kodachrome gave him more of the ability to capture what he visualized.

Lots of good photographers, but only a handful of 'greats', and I think he's one of those greats.

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So which was it: Leica's glass, Leica's cameras, Kodachrome, or Ernst Haas?

 

All of the above.

 

The picture would not have been selected had it not been an outstanding image. Thanks, Ernst Hass

 

It would not have been usable for the 30' wide panorama had it not been for the qualities of Kodachrome, and the image created by the Leicaflex. Thanks, Leitz and Walter Mandler, and Kodak.

 

And shame on current Kodak for not supporting Kodachrome better.

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It happened to come to my attention that maybe many Leica Forum readers/members may not have heard of, or seen any of Ernst Haas images. He passed away some years ago - but he did some great work with Leicaflex SL's and the early glass. Much of his work was color, shot on transparency film.

 

If anyone wants to see what the old glass looked like - what the R glass visual character was back then, or if you just want to see a Master's work look up ernst-haas.com. Too, his work will show just how nice the glass was, and still is. "In Germany", "In America", "The Creation" are some of my favorites - I hope to get a copy of "Himilayan Pilgrimage", either way, he really captured the 'Leica look'. A true inspiration in my early Leica years. He appeared in several Leica advertisements back in the 1970's.

 

 

On a side note, the Brad Pitt movie 'Seven years in Tibet' is based on Ernst Haas' life.

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Just read that the panorama at Grand Central Station was 18 x 60 feet.....in 1977, titled "Impalas Grazing".

 

I think I'm going to have to pick up a nice working SL with an old style 50, 35, or 90, and rediscover the joy. Well, maybe even an older 21mm.........

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And shame on current Kodak for not supporting Kodachrome better.

 

Are you kidding me? We are lucky in the digital age that they support it at all!

 

I shoot it, get it back in less than a week and feel supported like I am sitting in the cup of a giant bra...:eek:

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Just read that the panorama at Grand Central Station was 18 x 60 feet.....in 1977, titled "Impalas Grazing".

 

I bought a full Hasselblad XPan kit specifically to shoot my stock of Kodachrome 25 in. All the lenses are scary sharp and the scans are immense, well over 100 MB.

 

Maybe a good new version of the shot he had in Grand Central would be about a dozen Chevy Impala's in line at a gas station....ah, maybe not....:rolleyes:

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I was thinking 7YIT was based on a mountain climber.

 

Well, from what I read, he went to Tibet on numerous occasions - though too, I'm pretty sure 7YIT was not about him but about the mountain climber.

 

I'm going to try and locate a copy of his "Himalayan Pilgrimage",,,, if it's anything like his other works, I'll bet it's very special, oh, and buy some Kodachrome......

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Mooky, it is a very good book.

His later book "Ernst Haas in Black and White" is also excellent.

Also, anyone looking for "The Creation" should, IMO, search out the first printing. It has the abalone shell on the cover as opposed to the sun/clouds on the second edition.

The printing quality of the first edition seems to be a bit better to me.

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