| | | | | | | | ERNST HAAS
Route 66, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1969
Vintage dye-transfer print 45 x 68 inches
Signed by the artist on recto
Literature: Ernst Haas: In America, Viking Press, New York, 1975, pl. 93.
Ernst Haas: A Colour Retrospective, 1952-1986, Thames & Hudson, London, 1989, p. 127 | | | | | ERNST HAAS » Route 66, Albuquerque, NM, 1969 | | | | Unique oversized vintage dye-transfer print of one of the most iconic photographs of all time | | | | Paris Photo 2017 | Booth A9 | | | | | | | Route 66 is offered alongside an important group of other unique vintage works by Ernst Haas from the collection of the photographer's family. In addition the gallery is showing vintage prints by Irving Penn, Henri Cartier Bresson, Floris Neususs, and Richard Caldicott and large format editioned works by Jimmy Nelson. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Hartmann Valley, Cafema, Namibia 2011 ©Jimmy Nelson | | | | | | Ernst Haas and Route 66
Ernst Haas loved Route 66, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1969, which he took while driving through Albuquerque with his girlfriend. There was a thunderstorm and stopping the car was dangerous, but Haas had to capture the sudden light and begged her to stop the car.
His colour-drenched Route 66 draws the eye into jagged puddles of colour, reflections of billboards and neon. The water oozes into all of the bumps and imperfections in the asphalt and reflects back the glowing neon lights of the city. Route 66, Albuquerque, takes this desert town swollen with gas stations and motels and gives it a newfound, rain-washed brilliance which made it Ernst Haas’ most iconic work. With its speeding cars and myriad of drive-through restaurants signs the image has become a symbol of the automobile culture and of America’s golden years.
The print was made in the mid 70’s for an exhibition in New York, and was then hung in the photographer’s living room for decades and passed down to his family. This is the only print of Route 66 produced in this size; we are delighted to be offering such unique vintage and oversized dye-transfer print with exceptional provenance, which appears on the market for the first time.
A pioneer of colour photography, Ernst Haas is celebrated as one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. Born in Vienna in 1921, Haas began photographing returning prisoners of war. Haas was one of the first recruits to Robert Capa’s Magnum agency and joined Magnum in 1949. He moved to the United States in 1951 and began experimenting with Kodachrome colour film, becoming the premier colour photographer of the 1950s, introducing hues and tones never before seen in printed colour.
In 1962 a retrospective of his work was the first colour photography exhibition held at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition was exclusively comprised of dye-transfer prints – Haas’ printing process of choice, an extremely difficult and labour intensive process which translates the richness and depth of colour produced by Kodachrome film and Leica cameras.
His images featuring symbols of American culture, both familiar and historic, promote a sense of enduring spirit. In his shots of American street scenes, in cities from New York to Las Vegas, he captures the play of light on wet streets, glass shop fronts and tall, mirrored buildings to almost impressionistic effect — as in the classic Route 66, which has become one of the most celebrated images in history and an inspiration for generations of photographers and film-makers to follow.
About dye-transfer
The dye-transfer process, popularized by the Kodak Company, begins by making three black and white negatives using red, green, and blue filters. These are printed in the desired format on matrices (molds supplied by the manufacturer) and processed in black and white developer containing a tanner to harden the exposed gelatin.
They are then rinsed in warm water to eliminate certain parts of the gelatin, producing three relief matrices that are then soaked respectively in yellow, magenta and cyan dyes.
After each gelatin relief absorbs the dye in proportion to the thickness of the gelatin, the three matrices are aligned on gelatin-coated paper to which their color is transferred to produce a full-color image. This process allows the artist to adjust each color separately, allowing for complete control of the process. The result is an extremely stable image.
Dye-transfers were largely used to prepare advertising billboards from the 40’s to the late 70’s due its versatility. Haas photographed many advertising campaigns (such as Marlboro) and worked with the premiere dye-transfer labs in New York City. He used these same labs to produce large format prints for exhibitions of his personal work.
The C-Type and Cibachromes processes did not offer the same range of color and longevity Haas was looking for, and he printed almost exclusively dye-transfer prints. Furthermore he only printed his very best photographs as the process is extremely expensive and time consuming. | | | | | | unsubscribe here
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