Elger Esser was Bernd Becher’s youngest student at the Düsseldorf Academy, and he began his research into the urban or natural landscape in 1996, while his first exhibition at the Sonnabend Gallery was held only three years later. Esser considers that he was influenced by postcards from the 1950s to the 1960s, with their sharply contrasting and tonally intense colors and reassuring aura, their ability to convey the essence of a place.