Elger Esser (born 11 May 1967)[1] is a German landscape photographer. He is associated with the Düsseldorf School of Photography. He lives and works in Düsseldorf. [2] "He is primarily associated with large-format images of European lowlands with his characteristic low horizon lines, pale luminous colours and vast skies".[3]
Esser was born in Stuttgart, Germany and grew up in Rome. He is the son of the German writer Manfred Esser and the French photographer Régine Esser. He spent his childhood and youth in Rome, since the age of two. His father received a scholarship from the Villa Massimo in 1969 and his mother worked as a press photographer and Rome correspondent. He completed his high school diploma at the German School in Rome.
In 1988, the sociologist Peter Kammerer, published the anthology Italien. Menschen Landschaften (Italy. Human Landscapes), in a book series, with texts from several authors, and photographs by Régine Esser, and the young Elger Esser.
In 1986, he moved to Düsseldorf, where he worked as a commercial photographer until 1991.[7] He attended the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf between 1991 and 1997, where he studied under Bernd Becher. From 1996 he was a master student and received the Academy Certificate from the Art Academy in 1997.[8]
In 1998, Esser received a DAAD travel grant for Italy. He traveled to Calabria and recorded his impressions in a travel diary and in documentary photographs. The photographs created cross-connections between his own text and his father's text from 1986. The travel descriptions of father and son, together with the photographs by Elger Esser, were published by Kehrer Verlag under the title Nach Italien.
The central theme in Elger Esser's work is historical landscape photography. He finds his motifs on his travels through France, Scotland, Italy and the Netherlands. His imagery distances him from the documentary and objective working style of his academy teacher Bernd Becher.
For his photography book Morgenland (2017), he travelled to Lebanon, Israel and Egypt (including along the Nile to Luxor and Aswan) between 2004 and 2015.[9][4][10] Using an 8×10 large format camera[9][10] His work depicts "luminous and unpeopled landscapes" with "glassy waters, still horizons[,] ancient ruins".[10] shorelines, traditional feluccas and dahabeah sailing boats that "show off the area's mysticism, away from headlines about war and violence."[4] 'Morgenland' is an old German term for the Middle East, meaning 'morning land'.[9][10][13]
Publications
Books of work by Esser
Posed Spaces. Edited by Kulturforum Alte Post Neuss. With a text by Kerstin Stremmel.
Veduten und Landschaften. With a text by Rupert Pfab. Siegen: Kunstverein Siegen, 1998.
Vedutas and Landscapes 1996–2000. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 2000. ISBN978-3-88814-936-8. With a text by Rupert Pfab and a conversation between Esser and Georg Elben.
Nach Italien = To Italy. Heidelberg, Germany: Kehrer, 2000. Photographs by Esser and texts by Manfred Esser and Elger Esser. Edited by Thomas Schirmböck. ISBN978-3-933257-20-8.
Marne + Loire. Bologna: Pendragon, 2001. Edited by Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Villa delle Rose, Bologna.
Olivo Barbieri – Elger Esser: Cityscapes / Landscapes. Cinisello Balsamo, Milan: Silvana 2002. Edited by Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena.
