CAN HIS REPUTATION PRECEDE HIM?

I recently visited Juergen Teller’s Grand Palais “I Need To Live” exhibition and left with many thoughts but primarily, “What was that?” While the exhibition seemingly aimed to be provocative and daring, at what point do we  – as consumers of art – say that being provocative does nothing if the resulting message has no impact? Or worse, it has an impact, but one that leaves a sour taste in the mouth, especially as a woman. 

Simply put, a large sum of the exhibition consisted of nudity – mostly of women. From Vivienne Westwood, Kim Kardashian, Kate Moss and other unfamiliar subjects, he only shot partial or full nude images of women. I myself observed a man taking a selfie of himself with Vivienne Westwood’s breast’s as a backdrop and thought to myself “Something here is not right”. 

There isn’t quite a way to explain as a women why seeing other women being shot that way feels odd because ultimately (under assumption), it was consensual and it’s well within their rights to want to be shot nude. The feeling however is derived from feeling as through the photographer doesn’t view women the way we do, but rather takes advantage of his ability to take these images under the guise of “provocative art.” Had he executed the exhibition differently, I might’ve felt he was empowering and appreciating women, but this was just off. 

Prior to this exhibition, I had little to no knowledge of Juergen – despite his infamous iphone photography – and was intrigued to learn about his work. Not only was the exhibition quite disappointing, other elements of it that weren’t glorified nudes, were just lazy and placed like fillers of the nudity. Its also worth noting that being provocative is generally brave, and I admire the artists who push boundaries – but it’s equally worth noting that the boundaries being pushed here (whether it’s the goal or not) are solely reliant on the exploitation of the female body. This exhibition in particular is a presentation of the female body, by a man who will never know anything about being a women with those physical features and the ramifications of having them. 

Nonetheless, I found the rest of the exhibition to be thought-provoking, especially the pieces accompanied by a short story narrated by Juergen himself. It was interesting to discover him as an artist through this exhibition, and despite my criticism of the art – I appreciate all art for being able to make us feel and think. I realise and note that his natural and minimalistic approach to photographing celebrities who are always perceived as the height of glamour, humanises them and is a fun approach to fashion and celebrity photography. I also note that his work for many fashion houses – some of which were apart of the exhibition – is well approached and stands out from others in his field at times. It is simply just odd, one could say, to enter the exhibition of a know fashion photographer expecting fashion photography and be met with such images – but I digress. 

All this to say, art is subjective and we all perceive things differently – maybe his work just isn’t for me. The question being posed is a valid one though, being that we live in an era of accountability and calling out immorality. So, does his reputation precede him, or can we consider that he has accomplished great things BUT also has a weird perspective and approach to nudity?