BIOGRAPHY
Tessa Traeger is an acknowledged master of still-life photography, known for creating images of an intensely personal and original quality. She trained at Guildford School of Fine Art and Photography and her working life since the 1960's has been divided between Rossetti Studios in London and her studio at her home in North Devon. Her many years of photographic investigation were notable for her use of colour in still-life photography and food. In more recent years she has worked more in landscape and garden photography and on a series of exhibitions for Purdy Hicks Gallery, London, and The New Art Centre at Roche Court in Wiltshire
In the 1990s Tessa began to photograph the hill farmers and their traditional methods in a remote region of South-Western France. This project culminated after fifteen years in an artists book, 'Voices of the Vivarais', with an introduction by Mark Haworth-Booth and a solo show at Purdy Hicks Gallery devoted to the photographs.
In 2000 Tessa was commissioned by the director of the National Portrait Gallery, Charles Saumerez Smith, to photograph 50 of the most eminent horticulturalists in the UK to add to the museum collection and also to exhibit them at the gallery in 2003. These photographs were used to create a book to support the show 'A Gardener's Labyrinth', written by her husband Patrick Kinmonth.
In 2011 Tessa Traeger was appointed Artist in Residence at Boughton House and asked to create new works which would express aspects of the music collection in visual terms. She focused on two books of choreography published between 1706 and 1720 which record dance using the calligraphic system know as Beauchamp-Feuillet notation and combined this arcane calligraphy with expressive details she discovered amongst the many family portraits which hang in the house. These prints were exhibited in 2014 at Boughton House with a paperback to support the show, with an introduction by Liz Jobey.
This was followed in 2013 by 'The Chemistry of Light' in which she used found images and emulsions in decay discovered on a series of 19th century glass plate negatives that came to her as part of an inherited photography collection.
in 2017, after 52 years at No. 7 Rossetti Studios in Chelsea, Tessa moved to a smaller space nearby at No.77 Chesil Court. To mark the occasion she created an exhibition at her studio called 'Wild is the Wind' of the landscapes around her Devon home and produced an artist's book in a limited paperback edition of 52 copies with poems by Mark Haworth-Booth.
In 2018 Madeleine Bessborough invited her to re-create this exhibition at her gallery The New Art Centre at Roche Court, Wiltshire. For this show she produced and wrote a new hardback artist's book called Wild World, with calligraphy by Ruan Hoffmann.
On November 24th 2019 The Wild Word exhibition was opened at Roche Court by the Irish artist Dorothy Cross and on January 19th 2020 Susan Derges and Tessa Traeger gave a gallery talk.
EXHIBITIONS
Tessa has exhibited regularly since 1978 in Paris, London and New York as well as participating in many group shows. Her work is represented in the National Portrait Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Tate Britain London, the Bibliotheque National in Paris, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Citibank collection in London.
SOLO SHOWS
2019 Wild World, The New Art Centre, Salisbury, Wiltshire
2015 The Calligraphy of Dance, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
2014 The Calligraphy of Dance, Boughton House, Northamptonshire
2013 Chemistry of Light, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
2011 A Gardener's Labyrinth, Port Eliot Festival
2011 Voices of the Vivarais, Oklahoma City Arts Centre
filmed conversation with Mark Haworth-Booth, see here
2010 Voices of the Vivarais, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
2008 A Gardener's Labyrinth, South Tees Hospital, Middlesbrough
2007 A Gardener's Labyrinth, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle
2006 A Gardener's Labyrinth, Hove Museum, Hove
2005 A Gardener's Labyrinth, Cartwright Hall, Bradford
2004 A Gardener's Labyrinth, Scarborough Art Gallery, Scarborough
2003 A Gardener's Labyrinth, National Portrait Gallery, London
to accompany book published by Booth-Clibborn Editions
2003 Ardeche Festival of Arts (also annually 1994 - 1998)
2001 Foto Festival Naarden
2000 Work in Progress, Association of Photographers Gallery, London
1999 Storm Forced Trees, James Danzinger Gallery, New York
1997 Michael Hoppen Gallery, London
1993 Galerie M 20, Hamburg
1988 Sheffield Fine Art Gallery
1983 John Hansard Gallery, Southampton
1980 Neale Street Gallery, London
1979 Gallery Ratie, Paris
1978 The Photographers Gallery, London
1978 Round House Gallery, London
GROUP SHOWS
2017 AOP 50, One Canada Square, London
2017 'Here We Are' Burberry, London
2016 '100 Years of Vogue' National Portrait Gallery, London
2012 'L'Arbre et le Photographe', Beaux Arts de Paris
2008 Summer Exhibition, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
Photovoice Show, Photovoice
2007 Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London
2005 Paradiese auf Erden, Credit Suisse, Zurich
2002 Seeing Things, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
1994 A Positive View, Saatchi Gallery, London
1989 Machine Dreams, The Photographers Gallery, London
PUBLICATIONS
2019 Wild World, photographs and text by Tessa Traeger
published by Impress
2017 Wild is the Wind with poems by Mark Haworth-Booth
limited edition of 52 copies
2015 The Loveliest Valley by Stewart Grimshaw, photographs by Tessa Traeger
published by Damiani Bologne
2015 30 Ingredients by Sally Clarke and Tessa Traeger
published by Frances Lincoln
2015 Robert Kime, photographs by Tessa Traeger
published by Frances Lincoln
2015 Fern Verrow, photographs by Tessa Traeger
text by Jane Scotter and Harry Astley
published by Quadrille
2014 The Calligraphy of Dance
published by Impress
2010 Voices of the Vivarais, text and photographs by Tessa Traeger
introduction by Mark Haworth-Booth
Winner, Photographic Books, Art / Architecture Monographs
British Book Design and Production Awards
2009 A Garden in Sussex with Stewart Grimshaw
2003 A Gardener's Labyrinth; people, plants and places with Patrick Kinmonth
published by Edward Booth-Clibborn Editions
to accompany exhibition at National Portrait Gallery, London
2003 I Am Almost Always Hungry with Lora Zarubin
published by Stewart Tabori Chang
Gourmand World Cookbook awards 'Best Cookbook photography in the World' award
1999 Ronald Traeger: New Angles by Martin Harrison and Tessa Traeger
published by Schirmer Mosel
to accompany exhibition at V&A, London
1991 A Visual Feast with Arabella Boxer
published by Century
a compilation of work for British Vogue Magazine from 1975 - 1991
Andre Simon Award
1978 Summer Winter Cookbook with Arabella Boxer
published by Mitchell Beazley
Vogue Food Diary
D&AD Silver Award