Fascinated by postcards and inspired by landscape painting and photography, German artist Elger Esser creates images of beaches, riverbeds, wetlands, and valleys that are atmospheric and luminous. These unpopulated landscapes are his most common subject, and he often chooses sepia or monochromatic colors, producing images that avoid the intentions of supposedly transparent documentary photograph. Dedicated to the craft of the medium, his images are studies of the capacity of photography to reveal through its processes—using heliogravure and methods including oxidation, discoloration, overpainting, coloring, or corrosion.