Juergen Teller, collaborations (part 1)

Photographer Juergen Teller was born 1964 in Germany, where he studied photography for two years. To avoid military national service he learned English and moved to London in 1986 (age 22). Here he started working for record companies and photographs record covers. Later he got commissioned by magazines to make feature portraits. He meets stylist Venetia Scott and together with her, he started to photograph fashion stories for magazines like Face, i-D and Vogue Homme International.

 (Venetia Scott & Lola, daughter of Juergen & Venetia. Years later Marc Jacobs named his perfume after daughter Lola)

Juergen teller’s early fashion series were very much influenced by Venetia Scott’s styling, which wasn’t negative ofcourse… Later styling will still be an important element of Teller’s pictures, but it’s more blending in with the pictures, not dictating them….

The Magic Show

Face, December 1994

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Juergen Teller by Juergen Teller

In 1996 Taschen published the book Juergen Teller. On the cover, and inside, pictures of Annie Morton and a wide range collection of Teller’s work from 1990 till 1996.

The pictures of Kristen McMenamy, made for the Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, were considered shocking to a lot of people. Teller was accused of ruining her career ( the pictures show bruises and a scar on her body), but Kristen loved and still loves to work with him.

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Pictures of Juergen Teller, behind the scene of Helmut Lang fashion shows, like the ones from Kirsten Owen. Helmut Lang liked them so much, he decided to use them for his next ad campaign and a collaboration, which stayed on for many years, was born. Teller recently told he fell completely in love with Kirsten Owen the first time he saw her in a hotel bar in Milan, where she walked in with Peter Lindbergh (but Teller was with Venetia Scott a the time). Many years later, backstage at another Helmut Lang fashion show, Teller finally had the courage to tell Kirsten he was in love with her,  she answered: “So was I”.

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A fashion story with Linda Evangelista for Interview magazine 1993, photographed in Central Park showed a pure side of her, while most magazines and other photographers worked with Linda because she was a incredible chameleon.

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Juergen Teller had already met and photographed Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain in 1991 for Details and got commissioned by i-D to also photograph Cobain’s wife, Courtney Love. He flew to Seattle and was able to capture her outgoing (read outrageous) personality…

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Björk & son, in Iceland for Face (1993) was the beginning of a still going on working relationship between Björk and Juergen Teller. Teller likes longterm creative relationships with the people who inspire him, like Kristen McMenamy, Kate Moss, Helmut Lang and Marc Jacobs.This picture became quiet iconic for Björk.

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About the way he works:

‘I can achieve something in a very quick moment, but it does get very personal. I think I open a lot too. I don’t come around as the archetype fashion photographer dude, playing the big guy with the horde of assistants. I let them know I’m also nervous and insecure. Them I let them relax. The way I photograph is quite hypnotizing. I found a way to hide my insecurity – I have two cameras and I photograph like this [mimes cameras in each hand moving hypnotically] and this helps me to figure out what I should do, where they should go…it’s so intense, so psychologically draining, it’s like my brain works on overdrive in those minutes -or hours or days- I’m photographing.

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Uno Stille

Kate Moss by Juergen Teller for Vogue Italia October 1995, Styling Venetia Scott

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The last picture of the book Juergen Teller I show, is one for Vogue Hommes International , 1992. This picture always stayed with me, I don’t know  why. Maybe because I have a soft spot for (miniature) boats? It just makes me  happily emotional….

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/3822883107/sr=/qid=/ref=olp_tab_collectible?ie=UTF8&colid=&coliid=&condition=collectible&me=&qid=&seller=&sr=

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Working with Marc Jacobs

Juergen Teller’s work with Marc Jacobs, started 14 years ago. Venetia Scott turned down the work with Marc Jacobs, because she was about to give birth to the couples child, but CEO Robert Duffy and Marc Jacobs were persisting. They was flew over to reconsider the offer and Duffy and Jacobs were very understanding and clearly Venetia Scott couldn’t say no.

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Marc Jacobs asked Juergen Teller if he was interested in photographing Kim Gordon, who was in London and wearing Marc Jacob’s dresses on stage. There was a small budget to place the pictures in a magazine and Teller thought it was a nice thing to do, to go to a Sonic Youth concert. Teller said he wanted to be in control of the image and how about it was going to appear on the double page and wanted to design how the Marc Jacobs logo was in relationship to the advertorial… Marc Jacobs and Robert Duffy agreed and Juergen Teller created Marc Jacobs imagery.

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After this adventure Juergen Teller did numerous things for free, just like in the beginning at Helmut Lang. Teller said it was just the pleasure of being involved in such a thing. When Prada took over Helmut Lang and LVMH bought into Marc Jacobs, Teller got a proper share of earnings for all

his contributions.

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People were saying: “How do you get away with that, being in control of how it looks?” and Teller answered :”Weel, I put my heart and blood into it.”

And the better Teller and Jacobs got with what they were doing, the more confident they became, the work they did together was an excellent package. When, at one point, Juergen Teller became very insecure, Jacobs told him: “I really like that you get the best result if I let you do what you believe is right.” For Teller this was the nod of confidence he needed….

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Most of the time it was just Juergen Teller on his own with a handbag full of bags and shoes, no art director, no assistent, no stylist or anything. That’s how it all started…

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Book about Marc Jacobs advertising 1998 – 2009, all photographed by Juergen Teller.  Published by Steidl

http://www.amazon.com/Juergen-Teller-Jacobs-Advertising-1998-2009/dp/386521715X

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(Lola photographed for Marc Jacobs by her father Juergen Teller for the perfume named after her)

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Next week  Juergen Teller, collaborations (part2), with Viviënne Westwood, Celine, nominated actors and a recent exhibition…