Elger Esser

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 1986, he traveled with his father to Sicily to film the Friedrich Hölderlin's adaptation The Death of Empedocles by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet.{{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-30|title=Lesen Sie zeit.de mit Werbung oder im PUR-Abo. Sie haben die Wahl.|url=https://www.zeit.de/zustimmung?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zeit.de%2F2014%2F35%2Fkunstmarkt-elger-esser-fotografie-traumstueck|website=www.zeit.de}}

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.{{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-30|title=The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation|url=https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/elger-esser|website=The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation}} 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.{{cite news|accessdate=2020-12-30|title=Elger Esser: Wogen, Wracks und wandernde Sterne|url=https://www.welt.de/newsticker/dpa_nt/infoline_nt/boulevard_nt/article152414892/Wogen-Wracks-und-wandernde-Sterne.html|newspaper=Die Welt|date=19 February 2016}}

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.

From 2006 to 2009 Esser was professor of photography at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design.{{cite news|accessdate=2020-12-30|title=Preis für Fotokünstler Elger Esser|url=https://www.welt.de/regionales/baden-wuerttemberg/article152413605/Preis-fuer-Fotokuenstler-Elger-Esser.html|newspaper=Die Welt|date=19 February 2016}}

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.

He is influenced by the Romantic paintings of the 19th century{{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-30|title=Elger Esser: Morgenland|url=https://www.timeout.com/london/art/elger-esser-morgenland|website=Time Out London|date=5 April 2017 }} and 19th-century photography, and also inspired by writers such as Gustave Flaubert, Marcel Proust and Guy de Maupassant. He seeks out beauty.{{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-31|title=Elger Esser: Morgenland|date=8 May 2017 |url=https://www.port-magazine.com/art-photography/elger-esser-morgenland/}}

Esser's photographs of European rivers or river banks are large, quiet and deserted.{{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-30|title=Lesen Sie zeit.de mit Werbung oder im PUR-Abo. Sie haben die Wahl.|url=https://www.zeit.de/zustimmung?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zeit.de%2F2014%2F35%2Fkunstmarkt-elger-esser-fotografie-traumstueck|website=www.zeit.de}} Most of the time the horizon is low, as in the Dutch landscape paintings of the 17th century.{{cite news|first1=Ulrike von|last1=Goetz|accessdate=2020-12-30|title=Die Tiefe des Horizonts|url=https://www.welt.de/print-wams/article127955/Die-Tiefe-des-Horizonts.html|newspaper=Die Welt|date=12 April 2003}}

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. Using an 8×10 large format camera His work depicts "luminous and unpeopled landscapes" with "glassy waters, still horizons[,] ancient ruins". shorelines, traditional feluccas and dahabeah sailing boats that "show off the area's mysticism, away from headlines about war and violence." 'Morgenland' is an old German term for the Middle East, meaning 'morning land'.{{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-31|title=Elger Esser: Morgenland|date=8 May 2017 |url=https://www.port-magazine.com/art-photography/elger-esser-morgenland/}}

• 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. {{ISBN|978-3-88814-936-8}}. 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. {{ISBN|978-3-933257-20-8}}.
• 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.
• Cap d'Antifer—Étretat. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 2002. {{ISBN|978-3-8296-0047-7}}. With excerpts from correspondence between Gustave Flaubert and Guy de Maupassant (1877) and an essay by Peter Foos.
• Elger Esser & Bae, Bien-U. Seoul: Gana Art Center, 2006.
• Ansichten/Views/Vues: Bilder aus dem Archiv. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 2008. {{ISBN|978-3-8296-0357-7}}. With a text by Alexander Pühringer.
• Eigenzeit = Proper Time. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 2009. Edited by Kunstmuseum Stuttgart. {{ISBN|978-3-8296-0418-5}}.
• Wrecks. Düsseldorf: self-published, 2009.
• Nocturnes à Giverny Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 2012. {{ISBN|978-3-8296-0578-6}}.
• Zeitigen. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 2016. Edited by Pia Müller-Tamm/Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe.
• Combray. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 2016. {{ISBN|978-3-8296-0751-3}}.
• Morgenland. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 2017. {{ISBN|978-3-8296-0797-1}}.

• The Düsseldorf School of Photography. New York: Aperture, 2010. Germany: Schirmer/Mosel, 2010. Edited by Stefan Gronert. Includes work by Bernd and Hilla Becher, Laurenz Berges, Esser, Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Simone Nieweg, Thomas Ruff, Jörg Sasse, Thomas Struth, and Petra Wunderlich; a foreword by Lothar Schirmer, an essay by Gronert, and summary biographies, exhibition lists and bibliographies for each of the photographers. {{ISBN|978-1-59711-136-2}}.{{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-27|title=The Düsseldorf School of Photography, Stefan Gronert (ed.)|url=https://collectordaily.com/book-the-dusseldorf-school-of-photography-stefan-gronert-ed/|date=3 February 2010|website=Collector Daily}}{{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-27|first1=Jörg|last1=Colberg|authorlink=Jörg Colberg|title=Review: The Düsseldorf School of Photography by Stefan Gronert|url=http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/2010/01/review_the_dsseldorf_school_of_photography_by_stefan_gronert/|website=Conscientious}}

• 2010: {{ill|Rheinischer Kunstpreis|de}}. A €20,000 prize.
• 2016: Oskar Schlemmer Prize. A €25,000 prize.

Esser's work is held in the following public collections:

• Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York{{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-30|title=Elger Esser|url=https://www.albrightknox.org/person/elger-esser|website=www.albrightknox.org}}
• Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York: 1 print (as of December 2020){{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-30|title=Brooklyn Museum|url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/artists/19373/objects|website=www.brooklynmuseum.org}}
• Centre Pompidou, Paris: 1 print (as of December 2020){{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-30|title=Elger Esser|url=https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/ressources/personne/c6r4y6L|website=Centre Pompidou}}
• The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York: 1 print (as of December 2020){{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-30|title=Elger Esser|url=https://tang.skidmore.edu/collection/artist/1991#browse|website=Tang Teaching Museum}}
• Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography, Amsterdam: 1 print (as of December 2020){{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-30|title=Elger Esser|url=https://huismarseille.nl/en/photographers/elger-esser/|website=Huis Marseille}}
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: 1 print (as of December 2020){{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-30|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/283834|title=Ruaud, France: 1998|website=Metropolitan Museum of Art}}
• Mumok, Vienna, Austria: 1 print (as of December 2020){{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-30|title=Elger Esser|url=https://www.mumok.at/de/elger-esser|website=www.mumok.at}}
• Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria{{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-30|title=Land in Sicht! Landschaftsdarstellungen aus der Sammlung|url=https://www.museumdermoderne.at/de/ausstellungen-veranstaltungen/detail/land-in-sichtlandschaftsdarstellungen-aus-der-sammlung/|website=Museum der Moderne Salzburg}}
• Museum of Modern Art, New York: 1 print (as of December 2020){{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-30|title=Elger Esser|url=https://www.moma.org/artists/69541|website=The Museum of Modern Art}}
• Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany{{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-30|title=Photography Collection|url=https://landesmuseum-bonn.lvr.de/en/sammlung/fotografie/fotografie_1.html|website=Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn}}
• Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: 11 prints (as of December 2020){{cite web|accessdate=2020-12-30|title=Search|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/search|website=Rijksmuseum}}
• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York: 1 print (as of December 2020)
• Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam: 1 print (as of December 2020)

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|elger-esser.com}}
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7qsdZbI4F8 Esser talking about his work for Paris Photo in 2018] (video)

{{Dusseldorf School of Photography}}

{{ACArt}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Esser, Elger}}

Category:German landscape photographers

Category:20th-century German photographers

Category:21st-century German photographers

Category:Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni

Category:Artists from Stuttgart

Category:Living people

Category:1967 births