Ernst Haas: On Set

This book considers the film stills of Ernst Haas (1921-86), one of the most accomplished photographers of the 20th century, transgressing the borders between still photography and the moving image. Haas worked with a variety of eminent directors--from Vittorio de Sica to John Huston, Gene Kelly and Michael Cimino--and depicted cinema genres from suspense (The Third Man, The Train) to the Western (The Oregon Trail, Little Big Man), and from comedy (Miracle in Milan, Love and Death) to musicals (West Side Story, Hello Dolly). Haas inscribed a temporal, filmic dimension into his stills which, when viewed in a sequence, generate movement and narrative. So accomplished was his mastery of color, light and motion that Haas was frequently asked to photograph large group actions--from the battle scenes of The Charge of the Light Brigade and the dances of West Side Story to the ski slopes of Downhill Racer. On Set elucidates a novel perspective on the sets and the stars Haas photographed, and reveals a little-known but crucial dimension of his oeuvre.

Such distinction is obvious from looking at Haas' work -- some of which is as famous as the movies he worked on. (Todd Leopold CNN.com)

Ernst Haas photographed just about everything he could get in front of his lens. When he died in 1986, he left a huge body of work depicting deserts in the Southwest, skyscrapers in New York, pedestrians in Paris, monks in Vietnam. And movie stars―lots of movie stars. Haas looked at a movie set with a documentarian's eye. The selection here, from the collection Ernst Haas: On Set (out this spring, from Steidl), take visible pleasure in Hollywood's absurd, arresting artifice. (Christopher Bonanos New York Magazine)