Fashioning Fiction in Photography since 1990
April 16-June 28, 2004 MOMA

foto: Juergen Teller (German, born 1964)
The Clients, Haute Couture: Marie-Chantal of Greece, Paris. 1999 From “The Clients,” W, March 1999 Chromogenic color print, 73 x 50” (185.4 x 127 cm) Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York
© 2004 Juergen Teller

Juergen Teller for example drew on the narrative of everyday life rather than the world of fashion ideals to tell stories that lend familiarity and authenticity to the magazine page. For “The Clients,” an editorial made in 1999 for W magazine, Juergen Teller (German, b. 1964) photographed some of haute couture’s most loyal patrons, such as Vicomtesse Jacqueline de Ribes and Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece, at the fashion designers’ Paris ateliers. The photographs are straightforward, uncontrived, and devoid of the elaborate styling and deliberate preparations typical of studio photographs. The subjects are not models posing for a fashion photograph but women who seem to have been caught in a random moment. next>>>