ELGER ESSER (German, born 1967) Ameland Pier X, Netherlands, 2000 Color print and diasee face 70 7/8 x 93 1/8" (180 x 236.5 cm.) Sarah Norton Goodyear Fund, 2003

Elger Esser explains his approach to making landscape photographs in this way: "I seek places, not to document them as such, but rather to use the encounter with them to make a picture." This photograph was taken at one of the Frisian Islands in northern Holland. Esser captured the graphic, abstract qualities of a long, dark pier set against a pale and monochromatic world of sky, water, and sand. From a distance, the image appears totally abstract – a dark line across a white ground. From a closer vantage point, one can see details of the structure of the pier and tracks in the sand.

Born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1967, Esser studied photography with Bernd and Hilla Becher in Dusseldorf where he now lives and works. The Becher’s instructional focus on form and detail was influential in the development of Esser’s approach to landscape photography. His large-scale images of empty landscapes and deserted cities often have a compelling abstract quality, coupled with an overwhelming sense of silence and stillness. His photographs are on the scale of grand history and landscape painting of the past, but also evoke the saving and sharing of memories through the genre of tourist postcards.

- Jennifer Bayles, Educator for Special Projects