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).[1]
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.[2]
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.[3]
Teller has directed several fashion films, short films and artist videos including Can I Own Myself (1998), Go-Sees[17] (2001), World Cup Final, Germany 0 Brazil 2 London (2002), Schmetterling' (2005) and Dieter (2017).[2]
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.[19]
Teller was married to UK contemporary art dealer Sadie Coles from 2003 to 2018.[20]
Teller married Dovile Drizyte in 2021.[21]
Juergen Teller. Cologne: Taschen, 1996
Der verborgene Brecht. Ein Berliner Stadtrundgang. Zurich: Scalo, 1998
2014 Paparazzi! Photographers, Stars and Artists, Centre Pompidou, Metz, France
2015 Sleepless: The Bed in History and Contemporary Art, Belvedere 21, Vienna, Austria
2015-2016Faces Now: European Portrait Photography Since 1990, BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, toured to Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, and National Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki, Greece
2016 VOGUE 100: A Century of Style, National Portrait Gallery, London and Manchester Art Gallery
2016 Get a Life: Vivienne Westwood, K11 Shanghai Xinshiyi Art Center, Shanghai, China
2017 La Vie Simple - Simplement la Vie, Fondation Vincent van Gogh, Arles, France
2017 Aging Pride, Museum Belvedere, Vienna, Austria
2017 Boris Mikhailov Parliament, Ukrainian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Italy
2018 Icons of Style: A Century of Fashion Photography 1911-2011, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, USA
2018-19 Dior: From Paris to the World, Denver Art Museum, Denver, USA, Toured to Dallas Museum of Art, USA
2020 The Exhausted Man, Swiss National Museum, Zurich, Switzerland
2020 Beyond Fashion, Shanghai Center of Photography, Shanghai, China, Toured to ArtisTree, Hong Kong; Xie Zilong Photography Museum, Changsha, China; ALT.1 Hundai Seoul, Seoul, South Korea; IPFO, House of Photography, Olten, Switzerland; Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (2019-2024)
2021 E/Motion. Fashion in Transition, MoMu Fashion Museum Antwerp, Belgium
2021 Captivate! Fashion Photography from the 1990s. Curated by Claudia Schiffer, Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf, Germany
2021 Vogue Paris-100 years-1920-2020, Palais Galliera, Paris, France
2022 Joan Didion: What She Means, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA
2022 Football: Sport and Spectacle, Design Museum, London, UK
Teller's work is held in the following permanent collections:
