“THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA AND THE BIRTH OF AN IMPORTANT VISION”: FIRST EDITION OF ERNST HAAS IN BLACK AND WHITE

HAAS, Ernst. Ernst Haas in Black and White. Boston: Bulfinch Press (Little, Brown), (1992). Square quarto, original gray cloth, original photographic dust jacket. $950.

First edition, the critically-praised posthumous photobook of Haas’ finest work in black-and-white, with 114 duotone photographs, “a dramatic discovery of this little known side of Haas” (PSA).

“One of the century’s finest photographers,” Ernest Haas was honored by MoMA in 1962 when the museum chose him for its first one-man show devoted to color photography. Yet Haas had by that time already come to the attention of Robert Capa, when Haas’ black-and-white pictures of “the first WWII prisoners of war to return home… made him internationally famous,” and he was invited to join the Magnum agency (Abrams, 236). Nevertheless much of Ernst Haas’ black-and-white work remained unseen and unpublished until renowned critic Jim Hughes and Haas’ son Alexander delved into the photographer’s archives following his sudden death in 1986. The publication of Ernst Haas in Black and White proved a revelation: “a dramatic discovery of this little-known side of Haas… full of sensitive intelligence and lyricism” (Photographic Society of America). “In the black-and-white photographs of Ernst Haas, one sees reality transformed, both the dawn of a new era and the birth of an important vision” (Introduction). First edition, with three in-text and 111 duotone photographic plates and an introductory essay by Jim Hughes.

Book fine. Dust jacket near-fine, with one small closed tear.