Juergen Teller

Juergen Teller (born 28 January 1964) is a German fine-art and fashion photographer. He was awarded the Citibank Prize for Photography in 2003 and received the Special Presentation International Center of Photography Infinity Award in 2018.

Juergen Teller
Teller in 2013
Born	(1964-01-28) 28 January 1964 (age 60) Erlangen, West Germany
Education	Bayerische Staatslehranstalt für Photographie (now the Munich University of Applied Sciences), 1984–1986
Occupation(s)	fashion photographer, fine-art photographer
Years active	1986－present
Style	Minimalism, beauty of imperfection, "amateur" aesthetic, humanizing aesthetic
Spouse(s)	Sadie Coles (2003-2018) Dovile Drizyte (2021–)
Partner	Venetia Scott (1990–2003)
Children	3
Website	www.juergenteller.co.uk

Major solo exhibitions of his work have been organised at Fondation Cartier pour l’art Contemporain, Paris (2006); Le Consortium, Dijon, France (2010); Dallas Contemporary, TX (2011); Daelim Museum, Seoul (2011); Institute of Contemporary Art, London (2013); Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin (2015); Kunsthalle Bonn, Germany (2016), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2018), Grand Palais Éphémère, Paris (2023). Self-portraiture has been a prominent feature of his practice and was the main focus of his 'Macho' exhibition at DESTE Foundation, Athens, Greece (2014).^[1]

Education

Teller studied at the Bayerische Staatslehranstalt für Photographie in Munich, Germany (1984–1986). In order to avoid military national service he learned English and moved to London in 1986, aged 22.^[2]

Career

Since the beginning his career in the late 1980s, Teller has blurred the boundaries between his commissioned and personal work in his numerous campaigns, editorials, publications and exhibitions. Teller treats all of his subjects — family members, celebrities, and himself with a uniform style of grit, raw emotion and humour that has become his iconic and recognizable aesthetic.^[3]

His photographs have appeared in Arena Homme +, The Face, i-D, 032c, Pop, Purple, Self Service, W, Vogue (American, Australian, British, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish) and Zeit magazin among others.^[4] He photographed Kylie Minogue for the artwork of her 1991 album Let's Get to It. Teller first gained wider recognition in 1996 with his front cover of Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazine featuring a nude Kristen McMenamy with the word ‘Versace’ drawn in a heart across her chest.^[5]

In 1997, Marc Jacobs worked with Teller's then-partner, Venetia Scott to style his collections and Teller shot Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth for the Spring Summer 1998 campaign.^[6]

 

Juergen Teller in Haarlem, 2003

For the brand's 2005 campaign, he photographed himself with Cindy Sherman and also collaborated with Winona Ryder, Sofia Coppola, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Stipe, Rufus Wainwright and Harmony Korine amongst others until the SS2014 campaign.^[7] Teller has also collaborated with a range of other designers and fashion houses during his career, including Helmut Lang, Yves Saint Laurent,^[2] Vivienne Westwood,^[8] Céline,^[9] Missoni, Moschino, Barney's, Louis Vuitton,^[10] Adidas,^[11] Palace^[12] and Valentino.

Teller has photographed many celebrities, musicians, artists and photographers, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, O. J. Simpson, Kurt Cobain, Bjork, Kate Moss, Elton John, Pelé, David Hockney, Roni Horn, Sarah Lucas, William Eggleston, Boris Mikhailov and Araki Nobuyoshi.^[13] He photographed American rapper Kanye West for T: The New York Times Style Magazine and shot the 'Kanye, Juergen and Kim' supplement for System featuring Kanye West and Kim Kardashian as well as himself in 2015.^[14] The actress Charlotte Rampling has been a long term collaborator, appearing in Teller's Louis XV series which was exhibited at Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin and published by Steidl as a book in 2005,^[15] and the Paradis photographs shot at Musée du Louvre in 2009.^[16]

Teller has directed several fashion films, short films and artist videos including Can I Own Myself (1998), Go-Sees^[17] (2001), World Cup Final, Germany 0 Brazil 2 London (2002), Schmetterling' (2005) and Dieter (2017).^[2]

Teaching

Teller was Professor of Photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg from 2014 to 2019.^[18]

Curating

In 2016, Teller curated an exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs at Alison Jacques Gallery in London where he selected 58 images from the Mapplethorpe Foundation collection.^[19]

Personal life

Teller was married to UK contemporary art dealer Sadie Coles from 2003 to 2018.^[20] Teller married Dovile Drizyte in 2021.^[21]

Publications

• Juergen Teller. Cologne: Taschen, 1996
• Der verborgene Brecht. Ein Berliner Stadtrundgang. Zurich: Scalo, 1998
• Go-Sees: Girls Knocking on My Door. Zurich: Scalo, 1999. ISBN 978-3908247142.^[22][23]
• Remake Berlin. Steidl Verlag, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Bank Hofmann AG, 1999
• Tracht.Göttingen: Steidl/Lehmann Maupin Gallery, 2001
• More. Göttingen: Steidl, 2001
• Märchenstüberl. Göttingen: Steidl, 2002
• Zwei Schäuferle mit Kloß und eine Kinderportion Schnitzel mit Pommes Frites. Göttingen: Steidl, 2003
• Nackig auf dem Fußballplatz. Göttingen: Steidl, 2003
• Louis XV. Göttingen: Steidl, 2004
• Ich bin Vierzig. Göttingen: Steidl, 2004
• The Master. Göttingen: Steidl, 2004
• Ohne Titel. Göttingen: Steidl, 2005
• Nürnberg. Göttingen: Steidl, 2006
• Ed in Japan. Paris: Purple publications, 2006
• Jürgen Teller, Do You Know What I Mean. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Foundation Cartier pour l'art contemporain/London-New York: Thames & Hudson, 2006
• Juergen Teller Vivienne Westwood, Spring Summer 2008. Göttingen: Steidl, 2008
• Election Day, Vivienne Westwood, Spring Summer 2009. Göttingen: Steidl, 2009
• Juergen Teller: Marc Jacobs Advertising 1997-2008. Göttingen: Steidl, 2008
• The Master II. Göttingen: Steidl, 2010
• Zimmermann. Göttingen: Steidl, 2010
• The Deste Foundation Collection. Göttingen: Steidl, 2010
• Get a Life, Vivienne Westwood Spring Summer 2010. Göttingen: Steidl, 2010
• Calves and Thighs. TF Editore, 2010
• Touch Me. Reel, 2011
• Hotel Il Pellicano. Italy: Slim Arons, John Swope, Juergen Teller, Rizzoli 2011
• Common Ground. Marsilio Editoria, 2012
• The Keys to the House. Göttingen: Steidl, 2012
• Pictures and Text Göttingen: Steidl, 2012
• The Master III Göttingen: Steidl, 2012
• Woo! Juergen Teller Steidl and ICA, 2013
• Eating at Hotel Il Pellicano. Violette Editions, 2013
• Kolkata. The Juergen Teller Purple Book, Purple Institute, 2014
• I'm Fifty. Suzanne Tarasieve, Paris, 2014
• Araki Teller, Teller Araki., Eyesencia, 2014. With Nobuyoshi Araki
• I Just Arrived in Paris. (Louis Vuitton AW2014), Göttingen: Steidl, 2014
• Siegerflieger Göttingen: Steidl, 2015
• The Flow. (Louis Vuitton SS2015), Göttingen: Steidl, 2015
• Season Three. (Louis Vuitton AW2015), Göttingen: Steidl, 2015
• The Clinic. Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, 2015
• Mit dem Teller nach Bonn. Steidl/Bundeskunsthalle, 2016
• Boris Mikhailov, Parliament. Rodovid, Kyiv, Ukraine, 2017
• Vivienne Westwood, Andreas Kronthaler, Juergen Teller. In Other Words, 2017
• Leg, Snails and Peaches. Suzanne Tarasieve, Paris, 2018
• The Master IV. Göttingen: Steidl, 2019
• Handbags. Göttingen: Steidl, 2019
• Mmm!. Göttingen: Steidl, 2019
• TELLER ABLOH. Fine Print/Prestel, 2019
• 50 Times Bonami and Obrist. Göttingen: Steidl, 2019
• Plumtree Court. Göttingen: Steidl, 2020
• Leben und Tod: Nobuyoshi Araki and Juergen Teller. Göttingen: Steidl, 2020
• The Nipple, Annual Series No.7. Oakland California: TBW, 2020
• William Eggleston 414. Göttingen: Steidl, 2020. With Harmony Korine. ISBN 978-3-95829-763-0.
• Donkey Man and Other Stories. New York: Rizzoli, 2021. ISBN 978-0-8478-7077-6.
• Auguri. Göttingen: Steidl, 2022. With Dovile Drizyte. ISBN 978-3-96999-093-3.
• Notes About My Work. Göttingen: Steidl, 2022. ISBN 978-3-96999-135-0.
• The Master V. Göttingen: Steidl, 2022. ISBN 978-3-96999-134-3.

Awards

• 2003: Citibank Prize for Photography^[24]
• 2018: Special Presentation, International Center of Photography Infinity Award^[25]

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

• 1998Juergen Teller, The Photographers' Gallery, London
• 2002Märchenstüberl, Münchner Stadtmuseum, Germany
• 2002Märchenstüberl, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
• 2003Märchenstüberl, Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy
• 2003Märchenstüberl, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands
• 2003Tracht, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
• 2004Go-sees and World cup Final, Germany v Brazil 0-2 Temple Bar Visual Arts, Dublin, Ireland
• 2004Ich bin Vierzig, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
• 2006Do You Know What I Mean, Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris
• 2007Awailable, Inverleith House, Edinburgh, Scotland
• 2009Teller, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands
• 2009Logisch, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Germany
• 2010Touch Me, Le Consortium, Dijon, France
• 2011Man with Banana, Dallas Contemporary, US
• 2011Texte und Bilder, Moscow House of Photography, Russia
• 2011Texte und Bilder, Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania
• 2012Bilder und Texte, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, London, UK
• 2013 Woo!, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
• 2014Bus Stops, Strand, London
• 2014Macho, Deste Foundation, Athens, Greece
• 2016Enjoy Your Life!, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany
• 2016Enjoy Your Life!, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic
• 2017Enjoy Your Life!, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
• 2017 Juergen Teller, Kunstpalais Erlangen [de], Germany
• 2017Juergen Teller, Great Arch Hall, Photo London, Somerset House, London
• 2018Enjoy Your Life!, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland^[26]
• 2018 Zittern auf dem Sofa, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia^[27]
• 2019 Handbags, Museo Villa Pignatelli, Naples, Italy^[28]
• 2019 Heimweh, Konig Tokio x MCM Ginza Haus I, Tokyo^[29]
• 2021 What Are We Talking About?, T-10, Beijing, China^[30]
• 2023 I need to live, Grand Palais, Paris, France ^[31]

Curated exhibitions

• 2016 Teller on Mapplethorpe, Alison Jacques Gallery, London

Selected Group exhibitions

• Citibank Photography Prize, The Photographers Gallery, London (2003)
• The Kate Show, The Foam Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2006)
• 2007: represented Ukraine as one of five artists in the 52nd Venice Biennale^[32]
• Street & Studio: An Urban History of Photography, Tate Modern, London (2008)
• Not in Fashion, MMK Museum, Frankfürt, Germany (2010)
• Night in Twilight: Art from Romanticism to the Present, Belvedere Museum, Vienna, Austria (2012)
• Riotous Baroque, Kunsthaus Zurich, Switzerland (2012), toured to Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain (2013)
• Paparazzi! Photographers, Stars and Artists, Centre Pompidou, Metz, France (2014)
• Faces Now: European Portrait Photography Since 1990, BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, toured to Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, and National Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki, Greece (2015-2016)
• VOGUE 100: A Century of Style, National Portrait Gallery, London and Manchester Art Gallery (2016)
• La Vie Simple - Simplement la Vie, Fondation Vincent van Gogh, Arles, France (2017)
• Icons of Style: A Century of Fashion Photography 1911-2011, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, USA (2018)
• The Exhausted Man, Swiss National Museum, Zurich, Switzerland (2020)
• E/Motion. Fashion in Transition, MoMu Fashion Museum Antwerp, Belgium (2021)
• Captivate! Fashion Photography from the 1990s. Curated by Claudia Schiffer, Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf, Germany (2021)
• Vogue Paris-100 years-1920-2020, Palais Galliera, Paris, France (2021)

Collections

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

• Centre Pompidou, Paris^[33]
• Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris^[34]
• Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt^[35]
• National Portrait Gallery, London: 3 prints (as of January 2021)^[36]
• Victoria and Albert Museum, London: 4 prints (as of January 2021)^[37]

References

1. "JUERGEN TELLER: MACHO - DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art - Athens - Greece". deste.gr. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
2. Juergen Teller - Biography 2012-02-07 at the Wayback Machine European Graduate School, Leuk-Stadt.
3. Dazed (23 May 2016). "Why Juergen Teller puts himself in his photos". Dazed. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
4. "CLM – Artist". clm-agency.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
5. Juergen Teller: Ohne Titel Steidl Publishing.
6. Amy Larocca (August 17, 2008), Straight Shooter New York.
7. Marc Jacobs Advertising 1998-2009 Steidl Publishing.
8. Larocca, Amy, "Straight Shooter," New York, August 17, 2008.
9. "Céline Fall Winter by Juergen Teller". Design Scene - Fashion, Photography, Style & Design. 22 August 2010. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
10. Vuitton, Louis. "News by Louis Vuitton: SERIES 4: THE HEROINE BY JUERGEN TELLER". uk.louisvuitton.com. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
11. Dazed (25 January 2017). "See Juergen Teller's new visuals for adidas". Dazed. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
12. Dazed (2 February 2018). "Juergen Teller shoots and stars in the new Palace lookbook". Dazed. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
13. "Juergen Teller - Person - National Portrait Gallery". npg.org.uk. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
14. Fox, Imogen (10 July 2015). "Kim and Kanye snog (again) for fashion and other madness". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
15. "Naked Ambition". The Independent. 28 November 2004. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
16. Scheyer, Kate (21 September 2009). "Juergen Teller: "We've Got the Louvre to Ourselves, and You're Going to be Naked in Front of the Mona Lisa"". Vanity Fair. No. September. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
17. "Art review: Juergen Teller". The Guardian. 9 November 2001. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
18. "Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg - Juergen Teller". adbk-nuernberg.de. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
19. Anny Shaw (November 17, 2016), Juergen Teller reveals Mapplethorpe’s ‘gentler and more romantic side’ 2016-11-21 at the Wayback Machine The Art Newspaper.
20. Alice Fisher, "[1]," The Guardian, October 28, 2018.
21. [2], Wall Street Journal, 20th September 2021.
22. AnOther (24 November 2017). "When Juergen Teller Photographed 1990s Go-Sees". AnOther. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
23. Tozer, John (1 December 2014). "Juergen Teller: "Go-Sees" (2000)". Contemporary Visual Arts. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
24. Searle, Adrian (4 February 2003). "The Citibank photography prize, Photographers' Gallery, London". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
25. "2018 Infinity Award: Special Presentation — Juergen Teller". International Center of Photography. 14 February 2018. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
26. "Juergen Teller – Enjoy Your Life! - Exhibitions - Explore - Fotomuseum Winterthur". Fotomuseum Winterthur. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
27. "Juergen Teller. Zittern auf dem Sofa". Retrieved 20 July 2018.
28. "Juergen Teller. Handbags". Retrieved 20 July 2018.
29. "Juergen Teller: Heimweh: Opening". König Galerie. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
30. "Juergen Teller Opens Solo Show in Beijing". WWD. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
31. "Juergen Teller, I need to live". Retrieved 12 September 2023.
32. "Poem on the Inner Sea at the 52nd Venice Biennale / PinchukArtCentre". PinchukArtCentre.org. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
33. "Juergen Teller". Centre Pompidou. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
34. "An overview of the Collection". Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
35. "Werkübersicht ::: Sammlung Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main". Museum für Moderne Kunst. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
36. "Juergen Teller - National Portrait Gallery". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
37. "Search the Collections". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 12 January 2021.

External links

• Official website
• Steidl Artist Page
• Interview with Business of Fashion
• Interview with Nowness
• Interview with ShowStudio
• Interview with System magazine