JUERGEN TELLER Photography

Right off the bat, Juergen Teller is not my favourite photographer, but I do admire the majority of his work.

Teller's photography style is very up-and-personal, he uses unconventional models and pays attention to their bodies in a way that not many photographers out there do, meaning, they are very graphic and a lot of them include nudity. However, I look at them like it's a piece of art which, frankly, it is a part of it and I am that type of person who appreciates all kinds of art.

If I would have to sum up his photography styles into bullet points, they would look something like this:

Playful/Romantic Realism;
Raw, overexposed, informal surprise;
Provocative and controversial;
It has a domestic feel, but still quite high-fashion;
Vulnerable vs Powerful

Juergen Teller really pays attention to casting, he focuses on lighting, attitude and voice. His most used colour palettes seem to be pastels and neutrals, sepia effects.

BIOGRAPHY

"Juergen Teller (b. 1964, Erlangen, Germany; lives and works in London) is a prominent photographer who has successfully navigated both the fine art and commercial world since beginning his career in the late 1980s. Teller does not distinguish between his commercial and non-commercial work, treating all of his subjects—family members, celebrities, and himself—with a uniform style of grit and raw emotion that has become his iconic and recognizable aesthetic. Although he often parodies fashion photography, he is very much a participant in it, promoting the industry as he criticizes it. Teller subjects his models to unflattering angles, uses a bright, harsh flash, and never retouches his photographs, exposing the myth of idealized beauty that airbrushed fashion images offer. Teller’s work is characterized by a spontaneity and genuineness that he believes better evoke authentic desire than the artificial sensuality often found in commercial photography. Some of the prominent figures Teller has photographed include William Eggleston, Cindy Sherman, Kristen McMenamy, Kate Moss, Vivienne Westwood, Kim Kardashian, and Kanye West." - www.lehmannmaupin.com

Here are some of my favourite pages from his book 'Juergen Teller: do you know what I mean' (2006)