Finding Juergen Teller’s studio is not a difficult task. On a West London road, among two-storey, two-storey beige terraced houses, its 60-metre-deep plot stands in its faded concrete glory. An assistant opens the door to a large garage-like space where Teller posed nude on a donkey to celebrate the completion of construction in 2016 (the following year his studio was nominated for the Stirling Prize and won London’s Riba Building). Year Award). I go up to the second floor to find the 60-year-old creative collaborator and his wife of three years, 41-year-old Dovile Drizyte, sitting and waiting, surrounded by remnants of Teller’s nearly four-decade career. Link pages date back to 1997, there are stacks of Document Journals and Pop magazines, and the wonderful coffee table books are filled with her famous fashion merchandising, from Barney’s to countless bag brands.
When the couple arrives, it starts to rain. Teller, not famous for her instant hotness, moans. Wearing her signature fluro pink shorts and Asics sneakers, she begins photographing the wet window, and now the deciduous trees are budding in the central courtyard below. “Good,” he says, waving his iPhone screen at Drizyte. This is Teller in action. He’s not one to blather, and his results can look like they were quickly shot on his iPhone, even when the subjects are elite celebrities. When he shot Riz Ahmed near a tree for W Magazine’s annual awards season portfolio in 2021, the actor tweeted “it was the fastest of my life.” 20 seconds, two clicks’. After the W issue recurred in 2024 (see Natalie Portman wearing a Dior dress in a tourist store), the debate reignited. People call him lazy, others idolize his intelligence.
Either way, this gained him a new fan base; Generation Z is obsessed with this. His new works are followed by a flood of memes, often with awful paparazzi shots and the caption: ‘Photo: Juergen Teller.’ Was he excited about a new audience? He pauses, stares blankly. He doesn’t have it. He says, ‘I don’t do my job thinking about this, oh what will the younger generation think?’ ‘This is exactly what I’m interested in. And when my heart is all in it, then I’m always on a winning streak.’
He’s definitely in the middle of a winning streak. At the end of last year he opened his largest solo exhibition yet, I Need to Live, at the magnificent Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris. It ran for a month until 9 January this year and is currently on display at the Triennale Milano until 1 April. The exhibition, supported by Saint Laurent, features more than 1,000 works and covers his life, which “started with a photograph of my infancy.” It traces his move to London as a 22-year-old dodging military service in 1986 and is filled with famous portraits, including Kate Moss, Björk, Yves Saint Laurent and Joan Didion (“People I admire,” he says modestly). He does not shy away from personal opinions: ‘My father commits suicide, I was almost robbed at gunpoint. “Of course, these are unpleasant things, but I use them in my work,” he says.
It’s not just a few photos of himself. The cover of the catalog (and of this magazine) shows Teller horizontally; her legs spread wide in her signature short shorts, holding a bunch of balloons in her hands. In an accompanying shot (not printed) we see him in the same position, minus the shorts. Interesting, I say. ‘Pretty simple’ comes the answer. ‘My work is about my thoughts, ideas and experiences. It’s clear that I’m involved in this somehow. ‘I photograph my surroundings and the people who are important to me, so photographing myself isn’t that far-fetched.’
His eye contact vacillates between piercing and unapproachable, but he’s unwavering when it comes to the world outside his lens. ‘We are living in the most uncertain times since the Second World War,’ he says. And he has strong views, too: People who ignore climate change are like ‘Hitler’. “Everyone knew it wasn’t right, but it continues,” he says. Brexit ‘was an extremely bad decision made by the British people’. “The rest of Europe is now moving to the right,” he says, and he worries about the escalation of the war in Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East. ‘Everything is terrible, what can I say,’ he says.
He is brave, reckless and loves loud talkers. People like Gary Lineker. ‘He’s great, I love his political contributions. ‘I come from a very morally correct perspective, I’m positive and show the beauty in the world.’ Therefore ‘my work is political to some extent, even if it is not overtly political’. Still, fashion’s thirst for campaign shoots cannot be quenched. Just look at the new season advertisements of Loewe, Victoria Beckham, Saint Laurent and Marc Jacobs. Because ‘people are tired of luxury products being presented in an artificial, heartless way. Just buy, buy, buy. ‘There is a sense of reality in my work,’ he says. As for the other flashy campaigns on offer: These are ‘retouched, dead mannequins’. ‘I’m not interested in a stereotypical scenario.’ Of course, the sight of 88-year-old Maggie Smith clutching her Loewe bag for the Spring/Summer 2024 campaign was far from what was expected and was greeted with shouts of ‘iconic’.
It can be difficult to decipher where their paid work ends and their personal work begins. His four most recent books, as well as an exhibition catalogue, prove this: More Bags and Fashion Photography for America 1999–2016 (commissioned) to JurgaiÄiai (photographs of the Hill of Crosses in Drizyte’s native Lithuania, featuring his late collaborator Dame Vivienne Westwood and gallerist Suzanne Tarasieve) and The Myth document Drizyte kicking her legs up as the couple tried to have a baby. However, during the conversation, it is obvious that what motivates Teller is his self-made work. ‘No one is asking you to take a photo of this, that or the other,’ he says. ‘You’re working on it and you have a friend who is totally interested in following your ideas. You’re going on a journey together.’
That’s why many people love it. “Its ability to capture your ‘youth’ no matter what you’re wearing or doing makes it great,” says actor Dakota Fanning, whose first photograph was taken when she was 12. ‘When I look back at the photos he took, I see me.’ Iggy Pop says: ‘Juergen is like a comedian. For some reason he reminds me of Louis Prima,’ explains former British Vogue editor Edward Enninful: ‘He sees the magic in the everyday, and that’s what makes him one of the great masters of our time.’
The art community respects him. Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries in London, says: ‘In practice there seems to be no fear of failure. He wants to photograph people as they are.’ Fashion designers are also desperate to continue their collaborations — Anthony Vaccarello, Saint Laurent’s creative director, described his relationship with Teller as ‘Yves Saint Laurent and [photographer] Helmut Newton. These two artists fostered a unique creative partnership,’ says Westwood’s husband and collaborator Andreas Kronthaler: ‘Vivienne would say, ‘He always sees the picture.’ ‘She is a magician because she sees that she can convey something into pictures that you are not aware of.’
Other famous pairings include actors Charlotte Rampling (in Louis bat). However, it is clear that Teller attaches most importance to his work with Drizyte today. Invitations for their 2021 wedding wore hard hats and work boots and read: ‘We’re building our future together, come to our wedding.’ They prepared two shows of a similar construction nature.
She and Drizyte named their daughter Iggy – after Iggy Pop, ‘who I admired and thought she was great’. He is Teller’s third child, after Lola, 26, and Ed, 19. Mentioning Iggy turns the typically cold Teller emotional. When Document Journal heard the name of the woman it had commissioned to shoot Pop for its cover in 2018, the magazine said: ‘Oh my God. ‘We had Iggy Pop on the cover, now we want Iggy Teller.’ To do this, Teller recreated his best-known paintings with his daughter modeling them. ‘I must say, my wife, our daughter and I had a lot of fun doing this,’ he smiles.
He just doesn’t shoot anyone. ‘There are people I have no interest in photographing… it’s just pleasure,’ he says. And always prefers ongoing connections. ‘I value a relationship and collaboration as the years pass and something deeper emerges,’ he says. ‘Not just, okay I took a photo of Madonna, click. I took a photo of Kim Kardashian, click it. I took a photo of Pelé, click it.’ Of course he already has them all.
He acts nonchalant when I ask if there is anyone left on his wish list. “No,” he says, looking at the ceiling. ‘I don’t work that way.’ That’s when his wife comes into play. ‘Juergen Teller still has a short list of superstars he wants to photograph…’ Oh, right? ‘Okay, I’d love to take a photo of the Pope,’ he agrees and laughs slightly. Teller isn’t done dreaming yet.