Photographer
Juergen Teller
German photographer known for raw, direct style across fashion and art contexts.
Juergen Teller is a German photographer and artist born in 1964 in Erlangen, West Germany. He moved to London in 1987 and became prominent in the 1990s for his candid, unstaged fashion and portrait photography. His style, which often avoids retouching and artificial lighting, challenged glossy industry norms and influenced a generation of practitioners. Teller has worked with major magazines and designers, and his images are noted for capturing spontaneity, humor, and vulnerability. His work has been exhibited internationally in museums and galleries, and he has published numerous books.
Selected Works & Key Projects
A source-backed introduction to individual photographs and significant bodies of work.
Key projects
Project · 1998–1999
Go-Sees
Produced over one year beginning in May 1998, Go-Sees records prospective models photographed at the threshold of Teller’s West London studio. The title adopts the industry term for an introductory meeting between photographer and model: an open-ended test rather than a confirmed commission. This makes the project especially important within Teller’s practice because it turns a normally private mechanism of fashion production into the subject of a sustained photographic sequence. Its selection is warranted by its early place in his career and by its documented presentation as a major body of work.
View source ↗
Project · 2004
Louis XV
Louis XV is an unpublished 2004 series in which Teller performs role play with actor Charlotte Rampling. Kunsthalle Wien identified it as a presentation of his current art production within its 2004 exhibition, which also placed it alongside Go-Sees, The Clients, self-portraits, and family-centred work. The project merits selection because it makes collaboration and self-portraiture central rather than incidental: Teller places himself in the image-making situation with Rampling. Its inclusion in this institutional survey documents its importance within the transition from his fashion-facing pictures to a broader art practice.
View source ↗Project · 2015
The Clinic
The Clinic arose from Teller’s stay at a clinic in Austria after he had stopped smoking and drinking. He connected that experience to books made from his late father’s stored slide photographs, which prompted memories of family holidays in Austria. Contemporary Fine Arts presented the resulting project in Berlin in 2015 and published a catalogue for the exhibition. This is a consequential project to select because the documented account joins bodily recovery, family memory, photographic inheritance, and personal experience; a critical text for the exhibition further frames its pictures as confronting absence and the tensions of lived reality.
View source ↗Selected photographs
1998 · London
Young Pink Kate, London
Young Pink Kate, London pictures Kate Moss and dates from 1998. Tate Britain uses the photograph as the lead image for its exhibition The 90s: Art and Fashion, a show that examines a period when art, design, fashion, and photography became a closely connected cultural force in Britain. That institutional framing explains why this particular portrait merits selection: it is not simply a celebrity image, but a work chosen to introduce an account of 1990s visual culture. Its prominence on the exhibition page also documents its continuing public visibility.
Work source ↗1991 · Berlin
Kurt Cobain, Berlin
Kurt Cobain, Berlin is a 1991 C-print issued in an edition of five. Lehmann Maupin listed it among the selected works in Teller’s Logisch! exhibition at Kunsthalle Nürnberg, held from December 2009 to February 2010. It merits selection as a concise early example of Teller’s portrait practice focused on a major musician, while the later institutional presentation demonstrates that the image remained part of the artist’s exhibited body of work well beyond its original date. The edition, medium, title, location, and exhibition context are all documented by the gallery’s exhibition record.
Work source ↗2004 · Paris
Louis XV No.9, Self Portrait with Charlotte Rampling, Paris 2004
Louis XV No.9, Self Portrait with Charlotte Rampling, Paris 2004 is a C-print made in an edition of three. It was selected for Teller’s 2012 exhibition The Girl with the Broken Nose at Palazzo Reale, Milan, where it was shown at a large six-by-ten-foot scale. The photograph deserves separate selection from the Louis XV project because its title explicitly identifies Teller’s self-portraiture and his collaboration with Charlotte Rampling in one work. Its later exhibition as a monumental print confirms its usefulness as a concentrated, display-scale statement of the series’ performative premise.
Work source ↗2007 · Los Angeles
Victoria Beckham, Legs, bag and shoes, Marc Jacobs Campaign Spring Summer 2008, LA
Made in Los Angeles in 2007 for the Marc Jacobs Spring/Summer 2008 campaign, this photograph was included in Teller’s 2016 exhibition Enjoy Your Life! at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn. The work is especially apt for selection because its title records an advertising commission while its later presentation in a major museum exhibition places that commission within Teller’s exhibited oeuvre. The photograph therefore provides documented evidence of the way his fashion images circulate as art objects as well as campaign pictures. Its focus on Beckham’s legs, bag, and shoes is integral to the work’s stated title rather than an inferred description.
Work source ↗2000 · Paris
Yves Saint Laurent, Paris
Yves Saint Laurent, Paris is a 2000 C-print, documented by Lehmann Maupin in editions of five and in more than one scale. It appeared among the selected works for Teller’s 2006 exhibition Do You Know What I Mean? at Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris. This portrait merits selection because it connects Teller with Yves Saint Laurent while also carrying a clear institutional exhibition history. Within the available record, its importance rests on that documented movement from an individual portrait to inclusion in a Fondation Cartier presentation of Teller’s work, rather than on unsupported claims about its reception.
Work source ↗-
1964
Career milestone
Born in Erlangen, Germany
Juergen Teller was born in Erlangen, Germany, in 1964. This documented origin anchors the biographical context for a photographer whose later practice developed between German personal history and a London-based professional career.
Source: Onassis Foundation Verified Sep 4, 2026
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Late 1980s
Career milestone
Begins fashion-magazine work after entering London through music photography
The ICA records that Teller entered London photography through the music industry, making photographs for record covers, and that his photographs first appeared in fashion magazines in the late 1980s. This transition is central to his career because it established the dual art-and-commercial terrain for which the exhibition later identified him.
Source: Institute of Contemporary Arts Verified Sep 4, 2026
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1984–1986
Education
Studies photography in Munich
Teller studied at the Bayerische Staatslehranstalt für Photographie in Munich from 1984 to 1986. The stated period identifies his formal photographic training before his relocation to London and subsequent professional activity across art, editorial, and fashion contexts.
Source: Christine König Galerie Verified Sep 4, 2026
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1986
Career milestone
Moves to London
After studying in Munich, Teller moved to London in 1986. The move is a major career milestone because London became the setting from which he entered the music-photography scene and later developed a practice operating between commercial photography and contemporary art.
Source: Onassis Foundation Verified Sep 4, 2026
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2003
Award
Wins the Citigroup Photography Prize
Teller won the 2003 Citigroup Photography Prize at The Photographers’ Gallery. The Gallery’s historical account notes that the exhibition of work by Teller and the other shortlisted artists subsequently travelled to Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf and Fundación Carlos de Amberes in Madrid, marking a documented institutional circulation of the prize presentation.
Source: The Photographers’ Gallery Verified Sep 4, 2026
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4 March–28 May 2006
Exhibition
Do you know what I mean? at Fondation Cartier, Paris
Fondation Cartier presented Do you know what I mean? as Teller’s first major solo exhibition in France. It brought together important career photographs with the then-recent Nürnberg and Ed in Japan series, and addressed his publications as well. The institution described the presentation as crossing distinctions between fashion and documentary, and between public and private subjects.
Source: Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain Verified Sep 4, 2026
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2007
Exhibition
Participates in the 52nd Venice Biennale for Ukraine
Teller was asked to represent Ukraine as one of five artists at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. This is a significant international exhibition milestone in the documented chronology of his practice, placing his work within a national presentation at one of contemporary art’s major recurring exhibitions.
Source: Onassis Foundation Verified Sep 4, 2026
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23 January–17 March 2013
Exhibition
Woo! at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
The ICA’s Woo! exhibition surveyed Teller’s landmark fashion and commercial photographs from the 1990s alongside celebrity images, landscapes, and family portraits. It also included Picture and Words, drawn from his weekly Die Zeit magazine column and accompanied by readers’ complaint letters. The exhibition explicitly framed his work as active in both the art world and commercial photography.
Source: Institute of Contemporary Arts Verified Sep 4, 2026
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2014–2019
Career milestone
Professor of Photography at the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg
Teller served as Professor of Photography at the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg from 2014 to 2019. The appointment marks a documented teaching role within his career, extending his activity beyond photographic production and exhibitions into formal art education.
Source: Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg Verified Sep 4, 2026
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9 April 2018
Award
Receives ICP Infinity Award, Special Presentation
The International Center of Photography named Teller the 2018 Infinity Awards recipient in the Special Presentation category. ICP states that its annual Infinity Awards recognize major contributions and emerging talent in photojournalism, art, fashion photography, and publishing; Teller’s inclusion therefore documents recognition by a specialist photography institution.
Source: International Center of Photography Verified Sep 4, 2026
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16 December 2023–9 January 2024
Exhibition
i need to live at Grand Palais Éphémère, Paris
The Grand Palais Éphémère presented i need to live from 16 December 2023 to 9 January 2024. The exhibition combined personal and commissioned bodies of work, recognizable images, new photographic series, video, and installation. Its stated focus on Teller’s responses to events in his life and on the value of human existence makes it a substantial late-career institutional overview rather than a single-series presentation.
Source: Grand Palais Verified Sep 4, 2026
Representation
Galerie Max Hetzler
Galerie Max Hetzler is a contemporary art gallery with locations in Berlin and Paris. It represents Juergen Teller and has presented numerous solo exhibitions of his work over the past decades, establishing a long-term professional relationship.
Verified 2026-09-04Wikipedia
Representation
Lehmann Maupin
Lehmann Maupin is an international art gallery with spaces in New York, Hong Kong, and Seoul. It represents Juergen Teller and has exhibited his photographs in solo and group shows, reinforcing his global presence in the art world.
Verified 2026-09-04Wikipedia
Collection
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
The Museum of Modern Art in New York holds works by Juergen Teller in its permanent collection. His photographs are part of the museum's photography holdings, reflecting his significance in contemporary visual culture.
Verified 2026-09-04Wikipedia
Collection
Tate
Tate, with galleries in London and elsewhere in the UK, holds photographs by Juergen Teller in its collection. These works are part of the national collection of British art, acknowledging his impact on art photography.
Verified 2026-09-04Wikipedia
Collection
J. Paul Getty Museum
The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles holds examples of Juergen Teller's photography in its permanent collection, underscoring his standing as an influential figure in the field.
Verified 2026-09-04Wikipedia
Publishing relationship
Steidl Verlag
Steidl Verlag, a German publisher known for high-quality art books, has published numerous monographs and catalogs of Juergen Teller's work. The collaboration has been central to disseminating his photography in print.
Verified 2026-09-04Wikipedia
Juergen Teller (opens a new site)
The Photographers’ Gallery archive page documents Teller’s solo exhibition at the institution from 28 May to 24 July 1998, curated by Kate Bush. Its contextual text describes his work for i-D, Arena and The Face, and identifies an aesthetic of directness that ranges across fashion, portraiture, family pictures, and unsettling everyday subjects. It provides a period institutional account of the early London reception of Teller’s photography.
How does he do it? Juergen Teller. (opens a new site)
This Hans Ulrich Obrist conversation focuses on Teller’s working process and his teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg. Teller describes using multiple cameras, working without a tripod, adapting lighting to a situation, and making numerous exposures to relax both sitter and photographer. The resource also addresses his resistance to retouching, his approach to making portraits, and the movement between commissioned photography and teaching.
Juergen Teller: ‘People say they’re intimidated by me. I’ve no idea why’ (opens a new site)
Alice Fisher’s interview accompanies Teller’s participation in The Quick and the Dead in Hastings. Teller discusses moving from Germany to London in 1986, early record-cover work, fashion and art photography, teaching, and his self-portraits. It is particularly useful for his own comments on nudity, portraiture, magazine photography, and the personal circumstances behind a self-portrait made at his father’s grave.
Jürgen Teller (Kulturplatz, 6.6.2018) (opens a new site)
This four-minute Kulturplatz segment is an interview with Teller at Fotomuseum Winterthur. The programme page links the interview specifically to the museum’s exhibition Juergen Teller – Enjoy Your Life! It is a short broadcaster-produced resource with a precise exhibition context, suitable for documenting Teller’s public discussion of his work during the Winterthur presentation.
Photographer Juergen Teller's Woo!: ‘There are quite a lot of nudes in the show’ – video (opens a new site)
Published as Teller’s Woo! exhibition opened at London’s ICA, this video records him discussing the presentation. The page identifies the subjects addressed as his photographs of Charlotte Rampling, Kate Moss, and Vivienne Westwood, as well as dress codes and episodes of photographers’ block. It is a concise primary audiovisual resource for Teller speaking about an exhibition that brought together portraiture, nudity, and his fashion-world collaborators.
Robert Polidori
Shared publisher: Rizzoli, Steidl
6 photobook(s) in the library
Paolo Roversi
Shared publisher: Rizzoli, Steidl
5 photobook(s) in the library
William Eggleston
Shared publisher: Steidl
26 photobook(s) in the library
Antoine D'Agata
Shared publisher: Steidl
22 photobook(s) in the library
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