Ernst Haas: The American West

This is a great book in all regards. Print, binding, and paper stock are all very good quality. The design and layout are thoughtful. It is very hard to comment on the photography itself as this is highly subjective. That said I found the commercial work rather uninspiring and the inclusion rather heavy-handed. The commercial work seems to lack the imagination and spontaneity I enjoy so much from Mr. Haas. Nevertheless, I would recommend this volume to fans of Ernst Haas.

This new volume, covering an important part of Haas's work, is being released at the perfect time of year, now during the Holiday buying season. The Financial Times and Esquire chose it as one of their selections for their holiday photography book lists will enhance sales. These events will certainly enhance its sales.The images,some in B&W but the vast majority in color, cover a period from 1952 until his death in 1986. Many are well known favorites, both among the B&Ws and color. They cover sites from the Badlands to the southwestern deserts to the Pacific coast and many places in between.His earliest work, starting in 1952, was in B&W, and he continued to shoot B&W throughout much of his career for movie stills and other uses. Arguably, his 1952 trip into the West, was one inspiration to move to color, because of his reactions to what and how he saw there. I think, though, that the primary reason he went into color was owing to his reactions to coming to the USA from a war-ravaged, gloomy, colorless Europe; the contrast and culture shock - favorable in this instance - must have been nearly overwhelming.I first became acquainted with Haas's images in "The Creation," an all-time best seller among photography monographs. Several of those favorites in this new book hail from that book. Others are from "In America" and from his Retrospective book. I have enjoyed others in various magazine photo essays, books, the Getty archive, and digging around other resources.Then, too, there are about as many more photos not previously published, at least to my knowledge.The selection is rather eclectic. What Haas shot and why varied from pure commercial work, to personal interest, to documentary, to movie stills. The content of these images ranges from his impressions of what was ground truth, to the raw beauty of close and distant landscapes, to social documentation, to supporting the mythology of The Old West. Abstracts and motion studies are also well represented. Several of the motion studies of horses and rodeos are among his best known and recognizable images - archetypes of their kind, the cover photo being just one of several.There are a number of images from his movie stills, especially "Little Big Man," and some from "The Misfits." Also several photos are from his published and unpublished "Marlboro Man" work, which ran from the 1970s until his untimely death.Many of his best known landscapes were done on his own time while doing stills for movies. Directors and actors requested him specifically to shoot stills and to advise and consult on Western scenes and sites for filming. He also got to know and enjoy closeness to many locals, therefrom having often special access to photograph and film on certain public and private properties and during events.The larger format of some horizontally oriented images allowed me to notice details and aspects that had not registered with me before. On "Palm Springs, 1976," pages 190-191, I'm not certain that a tiny white dot had registered with me when I have looked at the image in the Retrospective book and the Getty website in smaller format. Once I paid attention, it is clear that that unexplained point of light at the crest of the mountains is critical to the composition: it makes the dominant diagonal of the cross and moon into a triangle, thus making the image more interesting than without it. Another fun revelation is the Grand Canyon image of a hoodoo against backlit water on pages 176-177. It had always struck me as a lovely, interesting image, but seeing it in this book, it is clear that it is an unacknowledged sandwich of two transparencies, a technique Haas was not averse to using. He also double exposed for some images.I like seeing so many of my all-time and old favorites in larger format than earlier books. Whenever I look at Haas's photos, I feel myself relax. Poetry and Buddhist spirituality are often touted as being part of his work. I think that comes through.This is a beautiful and worthy summary of a significant portion of Haas's American oeuvre, covering three and a half decades of the 20th Century. Those were the years when Post War Boomers were growing up, watching B&W TV westerns and seeing western movies in theaters, and playing such outside. This book's images will be familiar to that generation and is a historical record for younger generations. Many Boomers who took up photography during the 1960s -1970s were influenced and inspired by many of the images in "The American West."It should sell out. Well done to the Alex, Victoria, and Prestel, and the whole team.

I love photography. I love all kinds of photography. I’ve bought many different books on the subject and admire many of the masters. This one however has me stumped. I did not enjoy it. In fact I can probably think of 5 photos from the entire book that I liked and thought worthy.Is this me or is it that Haas just doesn’t resonate with me. As one critic once said, he does a good job at showing us that anyone can do this.Not my favourite. I’ll be selling it.

Ernst Haas was a pioneer of the use of color photography, using Kodachrome for his editorial/commercial/personal work. This book of images made in the American West is just outstanding, both in terms of the images and the outstanding print quality of the images in the book (printed in Germany). I cannot recommend this highly enough.

The NYC in Color book by Ernst Haas is a great inspiration and full of beautiful photos. This one on The American West could be just as great, but unfortunately the publisher/designer decided to print most of the pictures over 2 pages, so the middle part of the pictures sink into the spine and you can't fully enjoy the whole photograph.