Martin Essl is an Austrian artist working in Paris since 2010. He studied photography at the University of Arts in Linz and at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d’Art in Paris. Essl’s practice focuses on long-term essays combining photographs, text, and video. Working primarily in book form, he uses documentary photography to intertwine personal and political narratives. Paris continues to serve as both the stage and central subject of his work, where he investigates its evolving surfaces and layered histories, proposing renewed ways of seeing the city.
He is the author of three books: Le Château Rouge No. 1 (2015, Kehrer Verlag), Le bateau ivre (2024, Kehrer Verlag), Le Château Rouge No. 2 (2026).
His photographs have been exhibited internationally, featured in numerous print and online publications, and acquired by private and public collections and libraries. He has been represented by Galerie Esther Woerdehoff in Paris since 2016. In 2026, he founded The Paris Project, an artists’ collective dedicated to supporting and showcasing new photographic work created in Paris. Its first exhibition will take place in Paris in November 2026.
Martin Essl lives between Paris and La Rochelle with his wife, the artist Agathe Singer, and their two daughters.
info@martinessl.com