JUERGEN TELLER

The lighting is often harsh and his celebrity photographs, such as those taken of Kate Moss, never retouched.

Early Years

Teller studied at the Bayerische Staatslehranstalt für Photographie (1984–1986) in Munich. In order to avoid German military service, he learned English and in 1986 moved to London.

Juergen Teller Artworks

Juergen Teller likes to merge his professional lives and his domestic/private ones, deconstructing the idealised bodies normally depicted in high-class fashion magazines by revelling in awkward and ungainly positions, blotchy skin, sagging waistlines, and humorous, spontaneous, and inebriated scenarios. He tends to avoid elegance or perfection, embracing the casual, uninhibited, ridiculously silly, and aesthetically disastrous.

Teller oscillates between the super-serious and the super-flippant, being very aware of how his images are read. This lack of conventional protocols and good taste, so that glamour is often methodically avoided, includes himself as an unclothed flabby subject, as well the models who are friends and who trust him. Some like Charlotte Rampling and Vivienne Westwood take on long-term collaborations, even when they were naked and in their 60s.

When speaking of his own nudity in The Guardian, Teller has said: ‘For me, being German, naked is a natural way to be. When I started my self-portraits, I didn’t want to be associated with any statement of dress. That’s how you’re born, that’s how you do it. I like the shapes and the colour of flesh.’

Examples of such Teller artworks include Charlotte in Goal, London (2003); Kristen McMenamy Casa Mollino No.2, Turin (2011); Siren Studios in Los Angeles (2012); Mother with Crocodile, Bubenreuth, Germany (2002); Vivienne Westwood (2009); Vater und Sohn, Bubenreuth, Germany (2005).

Awards and Accolades

Teller received the Special Presentation International Center of Photography Infinity Award in 2018, and the Citibank Prize for Photography in 2003.

Exhibitions

Juergen Teller has been published in Vogue, Pop, Purple, W, The Face, Arena Homme +, i-D, Zeitmagazin and has been the subject of many solo and group exhibitions.

Solo exhibitions include Juergen Teller—Auguri, Suzanne Tarasieve, Paris (2021); Araki Teller: Life and Death, AM Gallery, Tokyo (2019); Handbags, Museo Villa Pignatelli, Naples (2019); Demelza Kids, Bonhams, London (2019); JUERGEN TELLER, Christine König Galerie, Vienna (2018); and Legs, Snails and Peaches / Juergen Teller, Suzanne Tarasieve, Paris (2018).

Group exhibitions include MISA #3, König Galerie, Berlin (2021); La Bohème, a show by Eric Troncy, Alfonso Artiaco, Naples (2021); Contemporary Photography Cabinet 2nd Floor, Frank Fluegel Gallery, Nuremberg (2021); London Calling, Lehmann Maupin, London (2020); Me, Myself and I, Christine König Galerie, Vienna (2020); THE PARENTS’ BEDROOM SHOW, Zuecca Projects, Venice (2019); United Artists for Europe, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London (2019); Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London (2019); and Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2019).

Collections

Teller’s photographs are held in major collections around the world, including Centre Pompidou, Paris; Daelim Museum, Seoul; Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris; Fotomuseum München, Munich; International Center of Photography, New York; Kunsthaus Zürich; Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; National Portrait Gallery, London; SYZ Collection, Geneva; and Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

John Hurrell | Ocula | 2022