Acqua Alta (Grove Press)

Ernst Haas was a photographic pioneer in the use of 35mm color film for street and documentary photography. His image of gondolas near the Doge’s Palace in Venice, Italy was taken in 1955, most likely with Kodachrome film, which at the time had an ISO of 10, making fast exposures impossible, even in bright daylight. The original image was almost entirely blue in color, possibly through the use of a filter, but much more likely due to just-before-daylight or just-after-sunset ambient light. On at least one other cover, however – in this case, the same novel, but from a different publisher – the image is rendered in a tan color; less surreal, but also less true to the original scene as rendered by this film.

To view the back cover of this book, click on “additional Views” above left.

To view an uncropped version of this photo, from images on Ernst Haas’ website, click here.