Vonplon Ester

Swiss. Born in 1980. Lives and work in Zurich and Castrisch.
Graduated from the Fotografie am Schiffbauerdamm, Berlin, 2007.

Since 2006 Ester Vonplon has produced series of photographs which appear to come from a different period and are singular in that they efface beings, places, and objects behind accidents, imperfections, and use effects such as differing grains, soft focusing, monochromatic veils, and sharp contrasts.
Technique is nevertheless of little importance to Ester Vonplon, who uses an intuitive approach. The effects obtained are not explicitly sought after; they are the result of chance and circumstance. They only interest the artist if they enable her – as when using different formats and operating modes within a given series - to express emotions and feelings as faithfully as possible.
Ester Vonplon’s photographs are infused with a deep, subdued melancholy. Yet she is not in search of a paradise lost. In her work nature is austere and at times threatening, imposing itself on a humanity evoked by ghostly silhouettes and fragile traces. The motif of the ruin runs across all Ester Vonplon’s series. It reveals an acute awareness of the fleetingness of beings and things and an obsession with disappearance.