l: dropping ball, 1998
courtesy GAM, bologna
r: girl london, 1998
courtesy GAM, bologna

24th january – 23rd march 2003
GAM - galleria d’arte moderna bologna
http://www.galleriadartemoderna.bo.it

(curated in collaboration with
the fotomuseum muenchener stadtmuseum, munich
and the folkwang museum, essen, germany )

---
the italian galery shows the first large-scale retrospective
dedicated to the german photographer.
the exhibition sets out to examine the works of teller through
125 original shots, the 'go sees' video, and numerous
photographs published in the best-known fashion magazines
during the 1990s.
---
juergen teller is one of the most influential fashion photographers
of the last years.
'go sees'
shoots (426 shots in total) / film / book
teller worked for more than a year in his london studio photographing
girls,just as they presented themselves as they knocked on his
door, plain or refined, beautiful or not. girls, who called at teller's studio
for an informal meeting in the hope of securing the modeling contract
that would lead to fame, fortune and a life of 'glamour'.
what emerges from these shots (the girls are portrayed in no other
pose than that of them ringing the doorbell) is a study which addresses
the subject photographed far more than the formal aspects.
their being anything but glossy, the artist’s portraits constitute
an understated criticism of the affectations of the world of fashion
and its ideals of beauty.
the 'go sees' series thus offers a compendium of aspiring beauties
trying their best to put on the 'teller look': slightly scruffy, all showing the
same anxiousness to strike the right pose which will allow them
to cross the threshold of the doorway. in the end, the most interesting
shots are those of the girls who are least used to this kind of work,
those who are not beautiful enough to become models,
but who put themselves on show nevertheless.