"This book intends to correct the somewhat blurred image of Ernst Haas’s color photography which, due to its extraordinary vibrancy, was much in demand by the illustrated press of its time. Haas’s color work, published in the most influential magazines and various books in Europe and America, earned him worldwide fame, but at the same time has often been derided by critics and curators as too easily accessible and not sufficiently “serious.” As a result, his reputation has suffered in comparison with a younger generation of color photographers, notably Eggleston, Shore and Meyerowitz.
However, such criticism usually overlooks the astonishing sensibility of Haas’s personal work in color, which constantly but almost invisibly accompanied his commissioned photography and was far more radical and ambiguous. Haas never printed these pictures in his lifetime, let alone exhibit them. With their striking inventiveness and complexity, they firmly stand their ground in the face of the work of Haas’s fellow photographers."
