Ernst Haas

Ernst Haas was born in 1921 in Vienna, Austria. He attended LEH Grinzing (Vienna) studying the arts and science. In 1940 he briefly studied medicine in Vienna but was forced out due to his Jewish ancestry. In 1947 he presented his first exhibition at the American Red Cross in Vienna, and magazine work soon followed, including for Life Magazine. Haas was then invited to join Magnum Photos as one of its first members, being appointed Vice President in 1950. While continuing to create black-and-white journalistic work, in the 1950s Haas began to experiment at the limits of colour and motion blur for his personal work. Haas' work has been exhibited widely throughout the world, including solo shows at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Kodak Gallery (London), La Fotogalerie (Madrid), Rochester Institute of Photography, Museum Der Moderne (Salzburg), Portland Museum of Art and Photolux (Lucca, Italy). Ernst Haas died in 1986, in New York.