In America

by Ernst Haas

An extraordinary collection of pictures taken in America by the "supreme poet of the color camera". From land, water, and sky Haas--an Austrian originally, who shot for Life and other publications--provides unique glimpses of this vast country's natural phenomena, man-made creations, and people, what Haas likes to call "living Americana." Oversized cloth-bound hardback in dust jacket. 144 pages; 105 full-page or full-spread color photographic plates; 13.5 x 9.5 inches.

Genres: Photography

144 pages, Hardcover

First published September 29, 1975

Reviews

[Gerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a magnificent large size volume and its size, 13.5 x 9.5 inches, with its many panoramic (some double-page spreads) does full justice to Ernest Haas' work. The whole gives the reader unique glimpses of America's natural phenomena, man-made creations, and people. Haas, sometimes referred to as 'the supreme poet of the colour camera', likes to call it 'living Americana'.

Vienna, Austria-born Ernest Haas first had the idea of a photographic essay on America in the early 1950s after he had moved to New York in May 1950. It occurred to him after he had read a copy of 'Winds', the epic poem written in Maine in 1945 by the French poet St John Perse, who was later a Nobel Prize for Literature winner. His initial thought was to illustrate Perse's poems but his attempt failed as he failed to foresee that 'any photograph placed next to the poetry of an author so fantastically visual with words had to appear either too literal by comparison or too abstract to make sense'.

Once settled in America he decided that he would produce his own book of photographs and after 'so many years thinking visually about America' 'In America', whose publication coincided with the 200th anniversary of the country, is the result. And it is a tremendous result as the photographs are spectacular, especially those that straddle two large size pages (13 x 9 inches).

It opens with a view of Monument Valley ruins in Navajo reservation country and is followed up by an awe-inspiring sight of the Grand Canyon at dawn and continues with views of Indian cave dwellings and then examples of petroglyphs and pictographs that are high up on the walls of the Canyon de Chelly.

Winter in Yellowstone, Roaming buffalo, shots when on location with the film crew of 'Little Big Man', 'The Big Country' and of 'The Misfits' and some brilliant 'Autumn colours, east and west' enhance the volume. And the last mentioned look quite similar despite being over 2,000 miles apart; the first is in the Canyon de Chelly in Arizona while the second is a typical New England scene. 'The misty blues of Maine' contrast vastly with these autumn shots and he was so impressed with those views that he states in his notes to the photographs, 'I was so taken with the misty beauty of the Maine coast that it became my vacation home for many years.'

A regatta outside Seattle, Jack London's world in the San Francisco Bay area, 'Football motions' taken from television and a view of the Packers versus the Giants taken for a 'Sports Illustrated' assignment, Louis Armstrong in close up in performance, the New Orleans Mardi Gras, Disneyland, a 1971 Women's Liberation Parade and congestion in a great double-page spread of New York all feature among the over 100 excellent photographs from all parts of the continent.

[False · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was reading about photographers and their use of color and this name cropped up. Ernst Haas (1921--1986) was a world renown photographer and any book dealing with the history of the medium will have his name in the Index and maybe a photo or two, probably color as this was his passion. I recently found this 1975 book through my library, but there are cheap hardcover editions on sale through Amazon.

It turns out though to be rather disappointing probably because the book's theme is too broad to be summed up with one hundred and five photos. There's a bit of everything here: Grand Canyon; Amish country; native Americans; the mid-west; football; Disneyland; suburbia; skyscrapers; Civil War and more. Fortunately the book is not quite as bland as those photo books sold to tourists at airports and full of bright, glossy color pictures of the Nation. He clearly states he shot using 35mm film almost exclusively while also pointing out it was terrible for capturing motion and speed, so there are a LOT of photographs of blurry running horses, sailing yachts, bullfighters, and sports. One in any given field might be sufficient to establish movement, but the book is full of these wavy images. Maybe because I just saw the film "Samsara" shot using real film with the images delinenated and sharp Haas' blurs only irritated me the more. I was more interested in reading his mini essays and philosophies on being a photography, the nature of photography and the symbolism and use of color.

There are some great photos in the book but not enough of them to say these were obviously taken by Haas. It does include his famous 1969 black sky shot of Route 66 going through Albuquerque but nothing from his photo essay of New York that Life magazine ran over two issues in September 1953, some of these are now classic images.

The book's layout is rather disappointing too. Whole page bleed photos are mixed in with others half a page with big blocks of empty page space either side. The white paper comes across as prominent as the photos. The back of the book has sixteen pages of comprehensive captions written by Haas.

[Kevin Bjorke]

feels dated, perhaps because other publishers (e.g. NatGeo) had similar books out at the same time, ust before the US Bicentennial.