This collection of striking colour images from the American West is both a moving national portrait as well as a celebration of analog color photography from an undisputed genius of the form. The photographer behind Life magazine’s first ever all-colour photographic essay, Ernst Haas made - and captured - history as an early adopter of Kodachrome film. The Austrian-born artist had already established himself as a black and white photographer when he moved to America in 1951. But as a member of the renowned Magnum agency, he transformed the genre with his colour-saturated images, the perfect medium for capturing America’s geographic and cultural landscapes. From desert storms, Route 66 gas stations, and Las Vegas neon to rolling prairie, dilapidated farms, small-town parades, and city sidewalks, Haas’ perfectly composed images, contain a distinct pictorial language, suffused with poetry, pattern, and light. At the same time his pictures communicate a journalist’s point of view, whether the subject is rural poverty, suburban comfort, or the myth of the American West. The remarkable book offers a vision of America that feels both poignantly distant and reassuringly familiar.
AUTHORS: Paul Lowe is a senior lecturer in photography and an award-winning photographer. He teaches at the London College of Communication. His photographs have appeared in Time, Newsweek, Life, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Observer, and The Independent, among others. Vanessa R. Schwartz is Professor of Art History and History at the University of Southern California, where she directs the Visual Studies Research Institute and its graduate certificate program. Her most recent book is Jet Age Aesthetic: The Glamour of Motion in Motion. 150 colour, 50 b/w illustrations