Tessa Traeger

Tessa Traeger (born 1938) is a British photographer. She is known for her still life and food photography,^[1] and has worked as an advertising photographer. Her work has been published in two books of her own; included in a number of books with others on gardening and food;^[2] exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions; and is held in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and Victoria and Albert Museum, London.^[3]

Biography

Traeger was born in Streatham, grew up in Sussex, and later relocated to London after completing college.^[4] She studied photography at Guildford School of Art.^[5]

Her initial work experience involved Queen magazine. At the age of 21, she received a £2,800 inheritance, which she used to purchase a Mini car for £500, a set of Nikon cameras, and the rent for her first studio, enabling her to start her freelance career.^[4]

Career

^[6] She worked on the food pages for the British Vogue magazine for sixteen years,^[7] in partnership with food writer Arabella Boxer.^[8] Some of this work is collected in their 1991 book A Visual Feast,^[8] which won the André Simon Book Award.^[9]

In the 1990s, Traeger photographed the hill farmers and their traditional methods in a remote region of south-western France, resulting in her book Voices of the Vivarais (2010).^[10]

Her 2013 exhibition, Chemistry of Light, was made by photographing decaying 19th century glass plate negatives that she had inherited.^[1]

Her 2014 book, The Calligraphy of Dance, was made as part of an artist residency at Boughton House in Northamptonshire, England.^[11]

Personal life

She was married to fellow photographer Ronald Traeger until his death from Hodgkin's disease in 1968, aged 31.^[12]

Publications

Publications by Traeger

• Voices of the Vivarais. Self-published, 2010. OCLC 880682376. With an introduction by Mark Haworth-Booth. Edition of 250 copies.
• The Calligraphy of Dance. Impress, 2014. With an introduction by Liz Jobey.

Publications with contributions by Traeger

• The Summer & Winter Cookbook. London: Mitchell Beazley, 1980. With Arabella Boxer.
  • The Vogue Summer & Winter Cookbook. London: Mitchell Beazley, 1980. ISBN 9780855332167. Presented as two books bound together under one cover, Vogue Summer Cookbook and Vogue Winter cookbook.^[13]
  • Bon Appetit Summer & Winter Cookbook. Knapp Press, 1980. ISBN 9780895350367.
• A Visual Feast. Century, 1991. ISBN 9780712647922. With Arabella Boxer. A compilation of work for British Vogue from 1975 to 1991.^[14]
• Ronald Traeger: New Angles. By Martin Harrison and Traeger. Munich: Schirmer Mosel, 1999. ISBN 9783888143847. "Published to accompany the exhibition 'Triple Exposure: three photographers from the 60s' shown in the Canon Photography Gallery at the V & A, 16 September 1999 to 30 January 2000."^[15]
• A Gardener's Labyrinth: Portraits of People, Plants & Places. London: Booth-Clibborn Editions, 2003. ISBN 9781861542496. Photographs by Traeger and text by Patrick Kinmonth.
• I am Almost Always Hungry: Seasonal Menus and Memorable Recipes. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2003. ISBN 9781584792871. By Lora Zarubin. Photographs by Traeger. With a foreword by Jay McInerney.
• Fern Verrow. London: Quadrille, 2015. ISBN 9781849495462. By Jane Scotter and Harry Astley. Photography by Traeger.
• 30 ingredients. London: Frances Lincoln, 2015. ISBN 9780711237520. By Sally Clarke. Photographed by Tessa Traeger.
• Robert Kime. London: Frances Lincoln, 2015. ISBN 9780711236639. Text by Alastair Langlands. Photographs by Traeger, Christopher Simon Sykes, James Mortimer, and Fritz von der Schulenburg.
• The Loveliest Valley: a Garden in Sussex. Bologna, Italy: Damiani, 2015. ISBN 9788862084413. Edited by Stewart Grimshaw. Photographs by Traeger.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

• Voices of the Vivarais, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London.^[16]
• Chemistry of Light, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London, January–February 2013.^[1]
• Tessa Traeger. The Calligraphy of Dance, January–February 2015, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London.^[11]

Exhibitions with others

• Three Ways, The Photographers' Gallery, London, February–March 1978. Work by Traeger, Burt Glinn, and Hans Feurer.^[17]
• A Gardener's Labyrinth, National Portrait Gallery, London, June–October 2003. Work by Traeger and Patrick Kinmonth. "50 specially commissioned portraits of Britain's leading horticulturalists."^[18]
• Machine Dreams: a New Technology, The Photographers' Gallery, London, September–November 1989. Work by Traeger, David Buckland, Graham Budgett, Calum Colvin, Mike Dean, Susan Derges, Steven Dowsing, Edwina Fitzpatrick, Adrian Flowers, and David Godbold.^[17]

Awards

• Winner, André Simon Book Award, food category, André Simon Memorial Fund, Glasgow, UK, for the book A Visual Feast (1991) by Arabella Boxer and Traeger.^[9]

Collections

Traeger's work is held in the following permanent collections:

• National Portrait Gallery, London^[19]
• Victoria and Albert Museum, London^[20]