Ernst Haas .. color correction

jtk · Aug 29, 2022

The painter in a hurry: Ernst Haas's colour masterpieces – in pictures

The photographer of the Marlboro man turned his lens on a much more mysterious side of America in amazing colour-saturated shots of the US

www.theguardian.com

“I want to be remembered much more by a total vision than a few perfect single pictures”, he said...

Have you seen this book? I have not. I'm wondering if it's a at least partially a monument to imagery that has been lost because many types of subject matter have been lost to forces like "redevelopment" and "gentrification."

Arthurwg · Aug 29, 2022

Too saturated for my taste.

jtk · Aug 29, 2022

Arthur...I have not seen it in person. Online you may be right. Some of those little Steidel (?) books have that tendency.
Some of Haas's fame come from his magazine photos, which are probably not as saturated as what we see in those little editions.. I may have to roll the dice and buy one...

awty · Aug 29, 2022

You need to saturate colour as modern cities are mostly devoid of it.

jtk · Aug 29, 2022

awty said:
You need to saturate colour as modern cities are mostly devoid of it.

Interesting thought. Are you especially concerned about adobe/white stucco buildings?

runswithsizzers · Aug 29, 2022

Very nice. Thanks for the link.

awty · Aug 29, 2022

jtk said:
Interesting thought. Are you especially concerned about adobe/white stucco buildings?

Everything here is painted in grey and white, all buildings, all new houses, not even much of a token neutral colour any more.
It's oppressing.
Only colour is in warning signage.
Photography saturates colour as a novelty.
Some old cultures still hang onto the tradition of colour.
There is no white or grey in or out of my abode.

DREW WILEY · Aug 29, 2022

He was a Kodachrome guy, and probably would't want that specific look tampered with. It had a balance - saturated, yes, but not slathered with sugar and inkjet drips like nowadays. Tasteful, not over the top. I haven't seen the book either, but certainly wouldn't buy it if the colors arre indeed as garish as the web ad, which is probably not the case anyway. His choice of medium for high end presentation was to have his images competently dye transfer printed. Book repro often has its annoying idiosyncrasies, depending, but is rarely as obnoxious as when some web jockey has his trigger finger on the "saturation" button. Haas knew how to modulate his hues; today people crank up the volume so loud that you go deaf after awhile.

Otherwise, I don't particularly care for the title of the book. A "painter" he wasn't. He tried to be faithful to what he found, at least within the signature personality of Kodachrome. Why retrofit all the currently trendy PS era re-paint mentality back on him? But I wouldn't be surprised if certain Photorealistic painters were influenced by him, instead of the other way around. Most people know about him from his Life magazine work, which of course was low quality reproduction, but ubiquitous.

jtk · Aug 30, 2022

jtk said:
The painter in a hurry: Ernst Haas's colour masterpieces – in pictures

The photographer of the Marlboro man turned his lens on a much more mysterious side of America in amazing colour-saturated shots of the US

www.theguardian.com

“I want to be remembered much more by a total vision than a few perfect single pictures”, he said...

Have you seen this book? I have not. I'm wondering if it's a at least partially a monument to imagery that has been lost because many types of subject matter have been lost to forces like "redevelopment" and "gentrification."

I'm certain that more of us (adults anyway) are more familiar with his Marlboro cigarette ads than anything else he did. Obviously, those "western" themed photos were as highly saturated as possible since they appeared mostly on billboards and in magazine ads.

jtk · Aug 30, 2022

DREW WILEY said:
He was a Kodachrome guy, and probably would't want that specific look tampered with. It had a balance - saturated, yes, but not slathered with sugar and inkjet drips like nowadays. Tasteful, not over the top. I haven't seen the book either, but certainly wouldn't buy it if the colors arre indeed as garish as the web ad, which is probably not the case anyway. His choice of medium for high end presentation was to have his images competently dye transfer printed. Book repro often has its annoying idiosyncrasies, depending, but is rarely as obnoxious as when some web jockey has his trigger finger on the "saturation" button. Haas knew how to modulate his hues; today people crank up the volume so loud that you go deaf after awhile.

Otherwise, I don't particularly care for the title of the book. A "painter" he wasn't. He tried to be faithful to what he found, at least within the signature personality of Kodachrome. Why retrofit all the currently trendy PS era re-paint mentality back on him? But I wouldn't be surprised if certain Photorealistic painters were influenced by him, instead of the other way around. Most people know about him from his Life magazine work, which of course was low quality reproduction, but ubiquitous.

I think he didn't "find" color/saturation in Kodachrome nor did he try "to be faithful to what he found" given that much/most of his work was seen on billboards and in cigarette advertisements. Instead, I think he used Kodachrome and other color films in order to produce the images his clients and his personal ego respectively allowed/required. That's the most genuine professional photo value system...IMO

And, by the way, some gigantic billboards are still painted as photo-realism.

DREW WILEY · Aug 30, 2022

OK. Let's just say he was well "attuned" to Kodachrome, and knew how to use it thoughtfully in relation to his chosen subject matter. And of course, a giant Colorama Ektacolor version of that, an expensive dye transfer version, and a magazine reproduction would have all come out somewhat differently.

I wasn't aware of his relation to certain Marlboro commercials. They didn't even look at that saturated to me, unless in an amateurish manner. However, those were the most influential photos in history with respect to killing more people than anything else. Even the Marlboro Man himself, the model, died of lung cancer.

Over the top saturation back then - that was more a Jay Maisal thing. Now it's everywhere.

jtk · Aug 30, 2022

DREW WILEY said:
OK. Let's just say he was well "attuned" to Kodachrome, and knew how to use it thoughtfully in relation to his chosen subject matter. And of course, a giant Colorama Ektacolor version of that, an expensive dye transfer version, and a magazine reproduction would have all come out somewhat differently.

I wasn't aware of his relation to certain Marlboro commercials. They didn't even look at that saturated to me, unless in an amateurish manner. However, those were the most influential photos in history with respect to killing more people than anything else. Even the Marlboro Man himself, the model, died of lung cancer.

Over the top saturation back then - that was more a Jay Maisal thing. Now it's everywhere.

I'm not bothered by saturation concerns. Many of his Kodachromes were probably duplicates...Kodachrome II actually worked well for dupes, sometimes anyway.

I generally liked Maisel's graphics-oriented photos as seen on jazz LP covers.

I hate this expression, but "it is what it is."

DREW WILEY · Aug 31, 2022

Yeah, I guess Maisal's personal compositional propensity would be appropriate for that; but when blatantly done up on some giant DT print on an office wall, it got rather kitchy, of at least dated, pretty fast - overtly trendy. But back then it was in style, and allowed him to run a pretty big successful color operation. I just can't stand being that close to a set of percussion cymbals being hit with a sledgehammer.

awty · Aug 31, 2022

Are his pictures devoid of reason other than a technique?
Sad.

DREW WILEY · Sep 1, 2022

Of course they had a reason. They made him a lot of money.

jtk · Sep 1, 2022

DREW WILEY said:
Of course they had a reason. They made him a lot of money.

Have you actually seen his non-commercial photos? Does the same issue apply to AA?

awty · Sep 1, 2022

From what I can tell looking through google at his photos is that his city scapes are a fast moving, lot of use of primary colours to grab your attention, but has nothing really to focus on, instead you are left with the movement, the noise..... I cant look at them with out hearing car horns and the rush of movement.....chaotic Jazz. Then he can take you away from that and give you a tranquil setting, warm colours and cool colours, put you at ease.....mellow Jazz.
He's very good.

jtk · Sep 2, 2022

awty said:
From what I can tell looking through google at his photos is that his city scapes are a fast moving, lot of use of primary colours to grab your attention, but has nothing really to focus on, instead you are left with the movement, the noise..... I cant look at them with out hearing car horns and the rush of movement.....chaotic Jazz. Then he can take you away from that and give you a tranquil setting, warm colours and cool colours, put you at ease.....mellow Jazz.
He's very good.

awty, what's your favorite link for Haas?

Ernst Haas .. color correction

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