Esther Teichmann

“Esther Teichmann’s watery, slippery world of another order is also taboo. In Silently Mirrored, the viewer slips and slides between photographs of the exuberance of her husband’s black skin (so dark that it hails deep sea blue) and photographs of the exuberance of her mother’s white skin (so white that it hails sky blue). In Teichmann’s black (body) and blue (washcloth) landscape of touching feelings, made of breath, water and skin, one is bruised (black and blue) by naked love.”

Carol Mavor Love in Black and Blue

In her large-scale photographic works and video pieces Esther Teichmann examines the relationship of the self to the maternal body and to the body of the lover. Desire and fear of loss are subtly and yet powerfully evoked in these explorations of the visceral and expressive properties of the human physique and skin. The title of her recent series, Stillend Gespiegelt, articulates this duality. German stillend can be variously translated as breastfeeding, quieting or comforting, while gespiegelt means mirrored. This word-diptych suggests the physical stillness of both mother and child in the act of nursing, as well as the physical proximity of the two lovers comforting each other. Within the parameters of the medium, these works draw attention to the status of the photographic image as a moment of stillness, not unlike a mother quieting her infant. While in the act of mirroring, every photograph becomes an invitation for self-reflection.

Teichmann’s work is autobiographical in that she chooses for her subjects the members of her immediate family. In her works their (often naked) bodies are almost close enough to touch, yet are held at a distance by the inherent aspects of the photographic medium. Like the mother’s skin, seen by the infant as fragmented surface, and like the lover’s skin too close to focus upon, so the image demands that the spectators negotiate their relationship to it.

Born in Germany in 1980, lives and works in London.

Education
2006-current: MPhil/ PhD Fine Art by practice (Photography), The Royal College of Art
2003-2005: MA, Photography, The Royal College of Art
2002: BA (hons) Photography, KIAD Erasmus exchange semester in Toulouse, France at the Ecole Superieure des Beaux Arts
1999: Art and Design Foundation Year at the Kent Institute of Art and Design

Solo Exhibitions
2008: ‘Fragments’, Galerie Karlheinz Meyer, Karlsruhe, Germany, May 2008 (with essay by Jonathan Miles)
2007: ‘Silently Mirrored’, Man&Eve Gallery, London (with catalogue essay by Carol Mavor)

Selected Group Exhibitions
2008: ‘In Our World, New Photography’ from Britain curated by Filippo Maggia, Modena Civica, Italy, April 2008 (with book publication by Skira publishing / Thames & Hudson)
2007: ‘Nature and Society’, curated by Robin Mason, The Dubrovnik Museum — ‘The Glyptotheque’, Zagreb — ‘Tagesstunde’, group show, Sassa Trülzsch gallery, Berlin — ‘The Region of Unlikeness’, curated by Kim Schoen, Bank gallery, LA — ‘The Esthacus Teichwynd Photos’, collaboration between artists Spartacus Chetwynd & Esther Teichmann, Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch, Berlin — ‘Storytelling’, Man&Eve Gallery, London — ‘Year_07 Art Projects’, London — ‘Aqua Wynwood art fair’, Miami, USA
2006: ‘Hyeres Festival’, Hyeres, France — ‘Habitat’, Phoenix Arts, Brighton
2005 : ‘MA/BA Show ‘curated by Catriona Warren and Kay Saatchi — ‘The Show: Part One’, Royal College of Art, London — ‘minus 7/plus 18’, (duo show) curated by Shirley Read, Lounge Gallery, London — ‘Made in Britain’, Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm
2004: ‘Perspective 2004’, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast

Prizes/Awards
Man Group Award (RCA) 2007
Creative Futures winner Photography, Creative Review, October 2005
Guardian Student Media Awards 04, photography award
Leica Prix 04 / The Royal College of Art, First Prize
Fujifilm Student Awards 04, First Prize for Portrait Category

Published work and Reviews
Art Review, Camera Austria, Capricious, Creative Review, Dazed and Confused, Hotshoe, I-D, Piktogram, 032C, V & A Magazine, Wallpaper, Rodeo, Qvest, Timeout.