Letters & Stories

Publisher's description

Writer Inge Bondi sheds fresh light on the life of her close friend and colleague, the Austrian American photographer Ernst Haas (1921–86), whom she first met in New York’s Magnum offices in 1951. Bondi shares unique memories of this brilliant and very private man alongside reproductions of his letters, poems, photographs, and ephemera, revealing for the first time details of his harrowing war years and complex personal life. The book’s 13 chapters cover Haas’ Homecoming Prisoners of War (1947), which prompted Robert Capa to invite him to join Magnum Photos; pioneering color reportage for Life and Vogue, featuring his blurred portraits of bullfighting and saturated images of New York; and his work on film sets, including The Bible, which led to the publication of Haas’ groundbreaking and acclaimed 1971 photobook The Creation. Inge Bondi gives historical context to photos like the one by Haas of the amputee on crutches seen on the opposite page at the far left. The black and white portrait to the right of it features Ernst Haas during the making of The Art of Seeing in New York, 1962 (© Dan Budnik).

Inge Bondi (b.1925) joined Magnum Photos in 1950 and eventually became the director of special projects and the only non-photographer with stock and voting rights in the famed photography co-operative. After leaving Magnum in 1970, she became an author and educator on photography. In recent years she has been working on this book. Inge Bondi lives and works in Princeton, New Jersey.