Juergen Teller's Raw Photography a Fashion Anomoly - Stylehive

Ask people what they think of when they hear "fashion photography" and you're likely to hear something along the lines of leggy models, advertising, and airbrushing. While these answers aren't at all wrong, they leave out so much of what the art form entails. Leave it to Juergen Teller to clear that up. The fashion photographer, whose name you'll find at the bottom of every Marc Jacobs ad, is known for the raw quality that his work achieves. Never glossy or expected, his photographs transcend the obvious and delve into the understated, rough-around-the-edges charm that the fashion world seems to love yet leave behind all at once.

Born in Erlangen, Germany in 1964, Teller studied photography in Munich before moving to London in 1986, where clients included Kurt Cobain and Elton John. Eventually he made the switch to fashion photography, working with a quite young Kate Moss and Stephanie Seymour before contributing his work to major fashion campaigns such as Comme des Garçons, Helmut Lang, Marc Jacobs, to name a few. In 2003, he won the Citibank Photography Prize for his shots of Moss, his family, and Björk. Most recently, he has spent the past two years shooting for Yves Saint Laurent, though most of his focus as of late has been on his non-commercial work.

It doesn't take long to realize that Teller's gift is his ability to create a relationship with the people he photographs. The untouched, unfinished quality of his work lends purity while maintaining a provocative edge, and the scruffy, imperfect, and candid yet focused result is what makes his photographs so recognizable and captivating. Click on our slideshow of examples of Teller's work to see what we mean.

[via designboom, Lehmann Maupin]