Elger Esser's photographs present the unmanipulated, timeless, romantic landscapes of rural Europe. He photographs beached, wetlands, riverbeds, and valleys. His views are comprised largely of air and water, light and reflection. The stillness of the landscapes and their muted dreamlike palette evokes the sublime, recalling works of landscape painters Caspar David Friedrich and Alfred Bierstadt. The large scale of Esser's prints coupled with the expansive distances and a muted palette create tension between the landscape seen and the landscape
rendered by the artist.