Ernst Haas: one of the color masters of photography:

1. Express your reality through photography

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography17

“With photography a new language has been created. Now for the first time it is possible to express reality by reality. We can look at an impression as long as we wish, we can delve into it and, so to speak, renew past experiences at will.” – Ernst Haas

2. Create a new visual language!

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography19

“We can write the new chapters in a visual language whose prose and poetry will need no translation.” – Ernst Haas

3. You have infinite possibilities in photography!

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography16

“There are almost too many possibilities. Photography is in direct proportion with our time: multiple, faster, instant. Because it is so easy, it will be more difficult.” – Ernst Haas

4. Let life nourish and inspire your photography!

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography15

“There are two kinds of photographers: those who compose pictures and those who take them. The former work in studios. For the latter, the studio is the world…. For them, the ordinary doesn’t exist: every thing in life is a source of nourishment.” – Ernst Haas

5. Don’t aim for originality in your photography; seek subtle differences

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography5

“The best pictures differentiate themselves by nuances…a tiny relationship – either a harmony or a disharmony – that creates a picture.” – Ernst Haas

6. Take a step back, and surprise your viewer with elements in the foreground or background

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography1

“Best wide-angle lens? Two steps backward. Look for the ‘ah-ha’.” – Ernst Haas

7. Move your legs when you’re shooting!

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography13

“The most important lens you have is your legs.” – Ernst Haas

Crouch, jump, leap, dance, move to the left, right, get closer, or take a step back! Or climb some stairs and shoot looking down!

8. Focus on seeing

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography14

“The camera doesn’t make a bit of difference. All of them can record what you are seeing. But, you have to SEE.” – Ernst Haas

The camera is important, but having “visual acuity” is more important. This means less getting distracted by looking at your phone, and look around you, and let your eyes wander around like a child!

9. Teach yourself photography, and unlearn superfluous stuff from the internet

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography18

“Learn by doing or even better unlearn by doing.” – Ernst Haas

10. How can you see the same old things, like they were new?

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography6

“I am not interested in shooting new things – I am interested to see things new.” – Ernst Haas

Suggestion: look at the world from the eyes of a child; like you saw and experienced things for the first time! Spend more time playing with kids, and find inspiration from them!

11. Embed feelings and emotions into your photos!

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography12

“You become things, you become an atmosphere, and if you become it, which means you incorporate it within you, you can also give it back. You can put this feeling into a picture. A painter can do it. And a musician can do it and I think a photographer can do that too and that I would call the dreaming with open eyes.” – Ernst Haas

12. To evolve as a photographer, evolve your eyes!

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography8

“There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.” – Ernst Haas

Buying a new camera or equipment won’t improve your photographic vision. My suggestion: buy photography books, and also study diverse forms of visual art to stimulate your eyes, brain, and soul!

13. What is your “total vision” as a photographer?

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography9

“I want to be remembered much more for a total vision than for a few perfect single pictures.” – Ernst Haas

Picasso is remembered for innovating in cubism, not a single painting. Andy Warhol is remembered for making ordinary objects into art (modern art), not just one art piece.

14. Your vision/message through your photos is more important than your photos!

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography2

“I prefer to be noticed some day, first for my ideas and second for my good eye…” – Ernst Haas

For myself, I want to be remembered for “open source photography”, and to make the world a friendlier place through street photography. To also encourage more entrepreneurship, and risk taking; not my photos.

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography3

“Only a vision – that is what one must have.” – Ernst Haas

15. Your style is your soul!

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography4

“Style has no formula, but it has a secret key. It is the extension of your personality. The summation of this indefinable net of your feeling, knowledge and experience.” – Ernst Haas

Your style is you. What’s your personality, and who are you as a person? How do your feelings, ideas, knowledge, and experiences impute themselves into your photos?

16. You’re an artist-poet-photographer

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography7

“In every artist there is poetry. In every human being there is the poetic element. We know, we feel, we believe.” – Ernst Haas

Strive to make poetic, beautiful, and artful photos!

17. Would you make photos if nobody ever saw your photos, or paid you money for it?

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography10

“Every work of art has its necessity; find out your very own. Ask yourself if you would do it if nobody would ever see it, if you would never be compensated for it, if nobody ever wanted it. If you come to a clear ‘yes’ in spite of it, then go ahead and don’t doubt it anymore.” – Ernst Haas

Shoot for yourself!

Takeaway points:

Ernst Haas Color Street Photography8

To make better color photos and to express more emotion into your photos, study the work of Matisse, Monet, Picasso
1. Also: Study the Masters of Art >
Color photography masters to study: Saul Leiter, Martin Parr, Stephen Shore, William Eggleston, Joel Sternfeld, Alex Webb
Embed your heart and soul into your photos!

JUST SHOOT IT.

ERIC

Master Street Photography

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT: Everything You Need to Master Street Photography.

Learn from the Masters

Learn From the Masters: Mobile Edition

Dear friend, if you haven’t heard the exciting news already– MASTERS is now available as both a digital and print edition!

Timeless wisdom from the masters of street photography.

Buy MASTERS on Amazon >

“He without a past has no future.”

Start here:

The Masters of Photography

Prague, 1968. Josef Koudelka / Magnum Photos

Classics never die:

For more inspirational free resources, join ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER and be the first to get exclusive content, access to books, presets, and new upcoming workshops.

17 Lessons Ernst Haas Has Taught Me About Street Photography