Star photographer Juergen Teller goes back to his roots
Sabine Oelze | Kate Müser
January 23, 2017
Fashion photography without fancy clothes, stars in unflattering poses: Photographer Juergen Teller explores the contradictions between art and commerce. Now a museum near his hometown is featuring his works.
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How absurdity can reveal the essence: Juergen Teller's photography
Fashion photography without fancy clothes, stars in unflattering poses: Photographer Juergen Teller explores the contradictions between art and commerce. Now a museum near his hometown is featuring his works.
Image: 2016 Juergen Teller, All rights Reserved
Breakthrough with Nirvana
In 1991, the photographer Juergen Teller followed a then-unknown US band on its concert tour through Germany. They were called Nirvana. Along with the breakthrough of the legendary grunge band came a great deal of recognition for Juergen Teller's work. Now, 25 years later, the man born in 1964 in a village in the South of Germany is a world-famous photographer based in London.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/O. Berg
Less is more
Juergen Teller is renowned for creating intimate settings for his work. For his fashion photography, he often prefers to show a bare supermodel than to focus on the glamour of the clothes and couture. In this campaign for designer Marc Jacobs, he even renounced most of Victoria Beckham's famous features, hiding her in a bag and letting her legs reproduce an M.
Image: Juergen Teller
Post-romantic photo shoot
In 2015, Juergen Teller went out on a surreal photo shoot with reality TV star Kim Kardashian and her husband, rapper Kanye West. Although they met on the grounds of a French chateau, the photographer nevertheless preferred to get Kim semi-naked on a pile of rubble. He also included himself (right) in the odd series of photos. They were released as a photo book entitled "Kanye, Juergen & Kim."
Image: Juergen Teller
Monkeying around
Many wonder why the power couple of pop culture would accept being represented in such a way. Teller believes his honesty towards his models allows him to try out wild experiments. Some photos in his new series are intriguingly absurd, commenting on the cult of stardom in fashion and entertainment, which perhaps can be just as surreal.
Image: Juergen Teller
Charlotte Rampling, a fox and a plate
Teller is known for putting stars in unflattering poses and juxtaposing worlds. On show in Erlangen is this photograph of British actress Charlotte Rampling ("Swimming Pool") sharing a plate with a fox on the patio.
Image: 2016 Juergen Teller, All rights Reserved
A Teller is a plate
Teller recently completed a new series, "Plates-Teller," which plays on his last name: Teller is the German word for plate. Musicians and models hold a plate, which symbolically replaces the photographer, who often includes himself in his concepts.
Image: Juergen Teller
Home life
In the series, Juergen Teller presents himself and his life on a plate. The exhibition in Erlangen, however, rather focuses on his roots in the neighboring Bavarian towns of Bubenreuth and Erlangen and on photographs of his family members. This bean and meat stew was photographed in Teller's birth town of Bubenreuth.
Image: 2016 Juergen Teller, All rights Reserved
Mother Irene
In recent years, Juergen Teller's mother Irene became on of his favorite muses. She has been pictrued on stage with a Japanese metal band and wearing the styles of Teller's fashion partners. Here, she is pictured in his home town, Bubenreuth, in Bavaria.
Image: 2016 Juergen Teller, All rights Reserved
Tribute to soccer
Soccer stars Pep Guardiola and Philipp Lahm also modeled for Juergen Teller. In 2014, the photographer prepared a book paying tribute to the football World Cup. During the 2016 Euro Cup, Teller worked on a new photo project with French footballer Paul Pogba. The photograhper has been a football enthusiast and player since his childhood.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/O. Berg
FC Bayern and Ed Teller in Giorgio Armani
Commissioned by Giorgio Armani to photograph first division German soccer team FC Bayern, Teller brought his 12-year-old son Ed along. Since Ed is also wearing an Armani suit, he's hard to spot in this photo featured at the Kunstpalais in Erlangen. The exhibition there runs through April 23, 2017.
Image: 2016 Juergen Teller, All rights Reserved
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He made a name for himself with candid photos of stars like Kurt Cobain, Kate Moss and Kim Kardashian. Now star German photographer Juergen Teller is going back to his roots with a solo show at the Kunstpalais in Erlangen in southern Germany through April 23, 2017.
Born in Bubenreuth near Erlangen to a family of musical instrument makers, he studied photography in Munich before moving to London to become a freelance photographer. Teller continues to live in the English metropolis.
Juergen Teller deliberately distances himself from the usual glamour in fashion photography - and that's what made his campaigns for designers like Vivienne Westwood or Marc Jacobs so remarkable. Sometimes he chooses to photograph his own family members instead of professional models, such as for a catalogue of a jewelry auction held by Phillips de Pury & Col. In 2005.
The Kunstpalais exhibition focuses in particular on works by Teller that have a connection to his home region and his family.
Click through the gallery above for a glimpse of Teller's oeuvre, some of which is on display at the Kunstpalais in Erlangen.