A Kaleidoscopic Pilgrimage: Ernst Haas and the Pioneers of Color
Ernst Haas (1921–1986), an Austrian, is regarded as a key figure in 20th-century photography and a trailblazer in color photography. In 1953, *Life* magazine published his 24-page color photo essay from New York, which was the first large-scale color feature in that publication's history. His retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York also marked the first color photography show ever held there.
Ernst Haas was born in 1921 in Vienna, Austria, to an Austrian mother and a Jewish father. Over the course of his life, he published four titles: *The Creation* (1971), *In America* (1975), *In Germany* (1976), and *Himalayan Pilgrimage* (1978). He received the Hasselblad Award in 1986, the year he passed away. 20 Pounds of Butter for the First Camera.
From an early age, Haas had a strong inclination toward painting and a sharp sensitivity to visual art forms. He was raised in a comfortably middle-class household, where education and creativity were highly valued. His father, a government official, was also an avid amateur photographer, while his mother—who treasured literature and wrote poetry—was an aspiring artist. This family environment influenced him to attend a private school in Vienna from 1935 to 1938, where he took courses in art, literature, poetry, philosophy, and science.
From an early age, Haas's passion for painting surpassed his interest in photography. After several years of formal training, his ability to judge composition and perspective became finely tuned. His teacher once asked him to act as a judge for the school's art competition. Eventually, he came to see photography as both a means of recording his journeys and a way to express his internal thoughts.
Haas’s photography career began in 1946, when, aged 25, he traded 20 pounds of margarine on Vienna’s black market for a Rolleiflex—his first camera. His own words: “I never intended to become a photographer. It grew out of a boy’s compromise, a desire to combine two goals: explorer and painter. I wanted to travel and explore the world—and what better profession could there be than a photographer?”
Haas’s early development as a photographer was shaped by Werner Bischof, which led him to understand that photography could be both a storytelling medium and a form of art. His ambition was to become a truly professional photographer, with the aim of capturing how the residents of Vienna coped with and rebuilt their lives after hardship. "Painting would be overwhelmed by the ever-changing scenes, but my inspiration for photography came from art, not photography magazines." Stay Free, Join Magnum
After viewing Haas's "Homecoming" photos, renowned war photographer Robert Capa asked him to join the then-new Magnum Photos. Around the same time, *Life* magazine offered Haas a position as well, but Haas eventually chose Magnum and sent a letter to *Life*'s editor. The "Homecoming" project, Haas's first, had already been published in *Life* and powerfully captured the bittersweet mix of joy and sorrow felt by Austrian prisoners of war as they stepped off trains and reunited with family.
In 1949, Haas joined Magnum. Two years later, in 1951, he relocated to the United States, and it was while photographing the deserts of New Mexico in black-and-white that he began yearning for color. Not long after, he started experimenting with Kodachrome color film, going on to become one of the leading color photographers of the 1950s. Regarding "The Colorful Tibetan Land of 'Himalayan Pilgrimage'", Haas remarked that he wished to remain free in order to pursue his ideas, and he suspected few editors would be inclined to assign the kind of work he wanted to capture.
He began traveling across the globe and working in magazines, books, and advertising. He said: "Both forms remain important to me. Still, black and white must undergo a transformation into the abstraction of color. What I want is to convey the world of color through color itself. I'm seeking a color language, not simply the techniques for composing black-and-white images.
Wherever he traveled, he made a point of finding holy places and serious ceremonies—ranging from Native American dances to ancient Greek ruins, the Holy Year in Rome, Cambodia's Angkor Wat, India's Borobudur Temple, and the Himalayan regions of Bhutan and Tibet, China. His photography book *Himalayan Pilgrimage*, which appeared in 1978, chronicled Haas's nine years of photographing Tibet.
The region’s singular radiance reached readers through the collection, which emphasized Tibetan Buddhist rituals, the landscape’s stunning immensity, and the peaceful elegance of Tibetans’ day-to-day existence. Haas articulates these two heights—“Mountains” and “Spiritual Realm”—in his book *Himalayan Pilgrimage*, where he writes: “Mountains have always held great significance for me. Growing up in Austria, I am grateful for everything the mountains gave me—endurance, discipline, awe, and wisdom, all of which are crucial in life.”
The notion that the planet’s highest summits seem to evoke the most elevated aspects of human nature has long fascinated me. It was this idea, and not merely the terrain or my photographer’s profession, that ignited my interest in the Himalayan expedition.
On my initial journey to the Himalayas, my fascination with scaling the highest summits gave way to a deeper curiosity about the wisdom held within the region’s inhabitants. The book’s cover image captures the parallel elevations of the "mountain" and the "spiritual realm," representing both the external and internal. A lama, positioned atop a lofty peak and sounding a ritual horn, seems to tower beyond the mountains themselves.
The gentleness and sincerity radiating from the Tibetan people held me in their thrall, and their unshakable faith and natural humor struck me as something like love at first sight. Because Tibet was so cut off from the wider world, I had assumed its people would distrust outsiders or be weighed down by the daily struggle to survive—until I realized how mistaken I was. They struck me as untouched by the "mechanical world," and Haas, for whom photography is the language of poetry, captured many of the region's rarely seen facets in striking shades of color.
Haas's photography consistently portrayed reality, whether he was capturing people, documenting cultures on the verge of disappearance, or observing changes in nature and the seasons. Those rich encounters led him to regard life as a gift. His deep fascination with the Tibetan people's resilience drove him to spend the final ten years of his life studying Mahayana Buddhism, which brought him profound inner satisfaction. As Haas put it: "Everything I have done has always been an extension of my interests.
To me, the deep connection between every sense and art matters profoundly. Through books and articles, I aim to unite photography with written words, and to pair audiovisual music with photographic imagery. My goal is to approach the world with an open mind, ready to learn humbly at all times. "I have always believed that adventure is far better than taking an easy path. Full of energy and a desire to explore the world, photography has become the language through which I write poetry." In 1955, Ernst Haas was seen with a camera lens simulator.