Elger Esser “Inherent Time”

Bruce Silverstein (529 W 20th St.)

[Image: Elger Esser "Mornac sur Seudre" (2014)]

This event has ended.

Bruce Silverstein presents its first solo exhibition with Elger Esser, Inherent Time.

Esser’s pictures capture the essence of a dream-state, a space which only poetry or prose can accurately describe. In many ways, his photographs share an emphasis on the atmospheric language found in the Pictorialist masterworks of Peter Henry Emerson. Like Emerson, Esser’s work involves a manipulation of what could otherwise be a straightforward photograph as a means of creating a picture rather than strictly recording nature. This characteristic is especially underscored in Esser’s most recent body of work, in which an elaborate hand-coating process is employed. The artist carefully applies layers of silver onto sensitized copper plates crystallizing the photographic image, which is then further enhanced by brushstrokes of shellac creating a distinctive surface sheen. The resulting objets d’art are luminous and precious, holding the viewer’s gaze and leading them into a time and place both distant yet familiar.