Juergen Teller

Juergen Teller (born 28 January 1964) is a German fine-art and fashion photographer.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

He was awarded the Citibank Prize for Photography in 2003 and received the Special Presentation International Center of Photography Infinity Award in 2018.

Teller was married to UK contemporary art dealer Sadie Coles from 2003 to 2018.

Teller married Dovile Drizyte in 2021.

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

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.

Teller has also collaborated with a range of other designers and fashion houses during his career, including Helmut Lang, Yves Saint Laurent, Vivienne Westwood, Céline, Missoni, Moschino, Barney's, Louis Vuitton, Adidas, Palace 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.

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, and the Paradis photographs shot at Musée du Louvre in 2009.

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).

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

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.

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.