Ferenc Haár (1908–1997)

Photographer. Haár was a student at the National School of Applied Arts between 1924-27, where his master was Gyula Kaesz. He took his first photos in 1928-29, and in 1930, he joined Lajos Kassák’s Munka-kör [Work Circle] where he started focusing on photography and influenced by Kassák, came close to left wing ideologies. His images convey his interest in form, light and constructivist compositions as well as his social sensitivity. The English Studio and then the Commercial Art and Industry magazine published an article about him, his advertising photos also aroused the interest of the Victoria and Albert Museum, his works also got included in the collection. After the success of his exhibited images at the Paris World’s Fair in 1937, he opened a studio in Paris, where he took photographs for the magazines entitled Vouge and Jardin des Modes. Film director Hiroshi Kawazoe invited him to Tokyo in 1940, then between 1956-1959 he lived in Chicago and from 1960 in Hawaii.