By Maria Bregman, writer, art critic, curator, and cultural producer. She has authored critical articles for publications such as ELLE, Esquire, Life Magazine London, BLUR Art Magazine, and London Post, and curated art exhibitions, including Zurab Tsereteli’s solo exhibitions. As a presenter for CultFM and creator of a cultural project for Cultura TV, she has broadened public engagement with the arts. Her achievements include organising international art and music festivals in the UK, Tunisia, Israel, and Russia, serving on the jury for the Vasily Kandinsky Art Prize, and the National Academy of Arts.
The evocative series “It bugs me” (2022) by emerging photographer Tes Berge presents a striking blend of surrealism and intimate reflection. Eclipse, Drift, and Pulse serving as centrepieces, Tes Berge constructs a visual narrative that marries intricate detail with profound allegory. Her work stands at the nexus of contemporary photography, inviting comparisons to other rising stars in the artistic world. Yet, Tes’s unique perspective ensures her place in the limelight, with “It bugs me” capturing an exceptional discourse on vulnerability, metamorphosis, and resilience.
Reframing the Familiar: The Art of Subversion
Tes Berge’s approach to her subjects – insects, magnified and recontextualised – imbues her photography with a duality of discomfort and fascination. The series serves as an invitation to look closer, not only at the physical intricacies of her subjects but also at their symbolic weight. In Eclipse, for instance, the precise rendering of textures and patterns conveys the uncanny beauty of the insect world.
What sets Berge apart from her contemporaries is her ability to manipulate lighting and composition to mimic a painterly effect. One might recall the works of Maisie Wilton, whose photography often blends the mundane with the extraordinary. Yet, while Wilton’s lens leans into ethereal portraiture, Tes ventures into a realm of scientific curiosity, drawing parallels with the inquisitive artistry of Carl Warner’s macro explorations. Berge bridges technical precision with a poetic sensibility, ensuring her photographs remain more than just documentation – they are acts of storytelling.
Metamorphosis as a Theme of the Times
In Drift, the insect’s posture – juxtaposed against an almost clinical backdrop – echoes themes of fragility. Transformation becomes a recurring motif, not unlike the artistic trajectory of Charlotte Marshall, whose sculptural works often interrogate human frailty. Tes, however, situates this fragility in a non-human subject, drawing parallels to ecological instability and the vulnerability of lesser-seen species.
Tes Berge’s ability to distil transformation into a series of still frames recalls the precision of Eadweard Muybridge’s motion studies, though her execution is distinctively modern. By leaning into the grotesque, she explores the boundaries of discomfort, forcing the audience to confront their biases. Her work compels viewers to consider: What does it mean to truly see the ‘other,’ especially when the other exists on the periphery of human attention?
Tes Berge Amongst Her Peers: A New Vanguard
The rise of Tes Berge comes amid a renaissance in conceptual photography, spearheaded by figures such as Albie Kavanagh and Eva Moreno. Kavanagh’s exploration of light as an emotional conduit and Moreno’s interrogation of memory through blurred landscapes both resonate with audiences seeking depth in the visual medium. However, Tes Berge’s niche focus – the intersection of the natural and the surreal – allows her to carve a unique space within this burgeoning community.
Where Moreno’s pieces lean heavily into abstraction, Berge retains a commitment to legibility. Her use of high-definition clarity ensures that her subjects are rendered unmistakably, but this clarity never undermines the mysterious aura she creates. Similarly, while Kavanagh employs stark minimalism, Berge’s compositions are unapologetically lush. Even in her most restrained frames, such as Pulse, Berge’s attention to micro-detail elevates her subjects into icons of an uncharted mythology.
Photography as a Mirror to Humanity
One cannot ignore the cultural undercurrents that flow through “It bugs me”. Tes Berge’s work resonates with a zeitgeist defined by environmental concern and the search for connection. In a digital age where fast consumption dominates, her deliberate pacing feels almost rebellious. Her compositions invite prolonged meditation, rewarding the patient observer with layers of meaning.
The allegorical richness of Pulse reveals the insect as both an individual and a collective metaphor. While the viewer grapples with the alienness of the creature, there’s also a nagging familiarity: the shared fragility of life. It is here that Tes Berge’s brilliance lies – in balancing the universal and the specific, the alien and the familiar.
An Artist to Watch
Berge’s “It bugs me” series is not merely a photographic achievement; it is a call to reconsider the role of detail, metaphor, and vulnerability in contemporary art. Her work stands tall alongside the experimental portraits of Wilton, the macro worlds of Warner, and the thematic interrogations of Kavanagh. Yet, Tes Berge’s voice remains singular, her lens capturing a rare balance of empathy and confrontation.
As she continues to develop her craft, one can only anticipate the directions her artistic vision will take. Will she delve deeper into themes of transformation, or will her lens shift to explore new territories of meaning? Regardless of her trajectory, it is clear that Tes Berge has already made an indelible mark on the photographic landscape.
Berge’s “It bugs me” is an invitation – to look closer, to feel deeper, and to embrace the unexpected beauty that often lies just beyond the edges of perception.
