Corner of 38th Street
Ernst Haas
American, born Austria. 1921–1986
1952
A dye-transfer color photograph in which Ernst Haas transforms a New York street corner into a painterly, almost abstract composition by using a translucent foreground form to fragment and color the view.
What hits you first is the large, blurred, leaflike silhouette filling the center that both hides and frames the crisp, geometric skyscrapers and elevated tracks behind it, producing a surprising depth and cinematic tension.
Made at a moment when color was still marginal in art photography, this image helped push color toward expressive, subjective photography, showing how everyday urban scenes could be rendered like vivid, modernist paintings.
Medium
Dye transfer print
Dimensions
15 × 22 7/16" (38.1 × 57.0 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Leo Pavelle
Accession
177.1959
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
