Photo:Juergen Teller-Guten Morgen Sonnenschein

Juergen Teller has successfully navigated both the fine art and commercial world since beginning his career in the late 1980s. Teller does not distinguish between his commercial and non-commercial work, treating all of his subjects—family members, celebrities, and himself—with a uniform style of grit and raw emotion that has become his iconic and instantly recognizable aesthetic.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: CFA Archive

Although Juergen Teller often parodies fashion photography, he is very much a participant in it, promoting the industry even as he criticizes it. Teller subjects his models to unflattering angles, uses a bright, harsh flash, and never retouches his photographs, exposing the myth of idealized beauty that airbrushed fashion images offer. Teller’s work is characterized by a spontaneity and genuineness that he believes better evoke authentic desire in comparison to the artificial sensuality often found in commercial photography. Some of the prominent figures Teller has photographed include William Eggleston, Cindy Sherman, Kristen McMenamy, Kate Moss, Vivienne Westwood, Kim Kardashian, and Kanye West. The exhibition “Guten Morgen Sonnenschein” (Good Morning Sunshine) celebrates the positivity, warm and playful inventiveness of Teller’s eight and half-year creative partnership with his wife, Dovile Drizyte. The eponymous series of diptychs depicts his morning ritual of making drip coffee paired with what was surrounding him at the time either at home or during their travels – a book, an artwork, one of their daughter Iggy’s painting or a photo of Drizyte sleeping, creating an intimate, personal love letter. The interconnected nature of their marriage and professional collaboration is embodied within the “Symposium of Love” (2025) series, which refers to Aristophanes’ speech given during Plato’s “Symposium”. Photographs of Teller and Drizyte’s naked bodies, rolling in the sand dunes gradually blends into one mythical creature, juxtaposed in the sequence with various incarnations from natural world – woodland, sunsets and stuffed animals.

In a recent interview, Teller explained the interdependence of their relationship; “We do everything together, from the morning to the evening…Even our thinking becomes very, very similar. I wanted this idea of our two bodies morphing into each other.” Teller is notorious for the blending of his commercial and personal work, which is epitomized within his series “Sono Qui” (‘I am Here’) (2026), photographed for Harper’s Bazaar Italia. Nude studies of Drizyte are contrasted with still lifes, cityscapes and fashion images that reveal an insider view of Venice and are contextualized by a portrait of the late Pope Francis at the Giudecca Women’s Prison, commissioned by the Holy See two years beforehand. The honesty of Teller’s signature gaze is demonstrated by his intuitive and democratic approach to portraiture – with German actors, Sandra Hüller and Lars Eidinger; artists Florentina Holzinger and Danh Võ; musician, Iggy Pop and fashion designer, Katharine Hamnett cast alongside author, Constance Debré; philosopher, Slavoj Žižek and footballer, Michael Olise. Most importantly, this exhibition provides affirmative reflections upon their family life, with their daughter, Iggy – from conception in a photograph from “The Myth” series (2022) to religious celebration in the “A Sciuta series (2023) and the humorous restaging of some of Teller’s iconic works in the Iggy Teller does Teller series (2023); combined with contemplative works such as the video, Men (2023), featuring actor, Alexander Skarsgård and Teller, drawing upon his father-in-law’s military service memories and his troubled relationship with his own late father.

This exhibition builds upon the momentum of Teller’s recent show, “you are invited” at Onassis Ready in Athens, Greece, with a renewed sense of purposeful storytelling which translates his innate curiosity for the world around him. Teller’s enduring ability to provide perceptive observations on fashion, family, relationships, religion and the everyday allows for a clear understanding of the contemporary relevance of the truthfulness of the medium within an evolving age of Ai and digital image manipulation.

Photo: Juergen Teller, Symposium of Love No.56, 2025, Giclee print, 152.4 x 203.2 cm, © Juergen Teller, Courtesy the artist and Contemporary Fine Arts Galerie GmbH

Info: Contemporary Fine Arts Galerie GmbH, Grolmanstraße 32/33, Berlin, Germany, Duration: 27/6-29/8/2026, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat 12:00-18:00, https://cfa-gallery.com/