Conceptually, Esser focuses on a thorough study of places through a series of uninhabited landscapes where seemingly disused buildings appear to merge with their environment, questioning the traditional divide between nature and culture. In these timeless compositions, shot in places that shaped the Western way of thinking, the buildings seem to belong to their surroundings, evoking the organic growth of philosophical theories and scientific findings in locations associated with a strong cultural heritage e.g. the Mediterranean, Egypt or Palestine.

These photographs from the three seas were inspired by Gustave Le Gray (1820–1884), an influential French photographer whose pictures are imbued with the feeling of belonging to the world rather than of being merely depictions of it. Aware of the limitations of his medium, Le Gray devised several technical improvements. He is notably famous for striking seascapes in which he assembled two negatives, one for the sky and another for the sea, hence bypassing the different exposures required and the challenge of capturing them both in one image.

Over his career, Esser has collected more than 25,000 postcards from the areas around these very seas, representing 30 years working across France. They bear witness to a constantly changing landscape that is yet set within boundaries. The Mont-Saint-Michel is an abbey built on tidal island off the Normandy coast. Esser pictures it from such distance that only the outline of the architecture becomes visible, growing into a dark shape floating at low tide between a pink ocean and a white sky, barely attached to the mainland by a strip that stretches on the left side of the picture.

The Fort d’Ambleteuse was built by legendary architect Vauban on the northern tip of France in 1680. It is imbued by a golden light that is characteristic of Esser’s approach – an almost blinding atmosphere generated by the reflection of the sun on all the components of the picture, such as air, clouds and water – that translates into a reduced colour palette reminiscent of antique engravings and maps.

A salted water pond located on the Sainte-Marguerite island, off the tip of Cannes, the Étang du Batéguier is home to luxuriant flora dominated by pines and holly oaks. Under Esser’s lens the pond reflects the perfectly still vegetation like a mirror, turning the water into sky, in a mesmerising quietness. This image within the image alludes to the limitation of the photographic medium while reminding us that Esser’s approach is closer to a painter’s than to realistic documentation.

Esser’s exploration of the French coasts does not only rely on a deep knowledge of the country; it reveals a clear appreciation for history and an analytical approach infused with poetry. Based on fundamental elements such as water, stone and air in timeless scenery, his landscapes convey Kant’s concept of the sublime, an awesome feeling induced by greatness that is not inherent to the observed object but originates in our judgement – the depiction of that same object. What appears to be sublime is not as such appealing. Beyond centuries of cultural tradition finding sublimity in wild landscapes, this feeling of greatness is first generated by elements of an unfathomable magnitude which Esser brilliantly captures in his photographs. Several works featuring only sky and sea – both fascinating and terrifying in their vastness – are especially dramatic, e.g. ‘Soleil‘ (sun) and ‘Vague’ (wave). The gaze gets lost in an immense space seemingly empty but actually filled with wind, salt and water drops – letting us experience only from a distance the ballet of elements which Esser recorded on a particular day.

Elger Esser’s photographs are part of numerous public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf; and the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, amongst others. They have also been exhibited in many institutions, most recently at the Musée de la Mer, Cannes (2021); the Fondation Fernet-Branca, Saint-Louis (2019); the Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London (2017); the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe (2016); and the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Tampa, FL (2014).