MARC JACOBS 1997-2008:STEIDL

Most fashion photography is done by gay people finding women sexy,” Teller says, “which is sort of not sexy at all, at least to a heterosexual man. She’s so retouched, so airbrushed, without any human response at all, and, well, you don’t really want to fuck a doll.”

Juergen Teller....

Juergen Teller has been known to take some pervy photographs in his time — the set of 28 awkward nude self-portraits from 2004 (NSFW), some with Charlotte Rampling, come to mind. But those were self-portraits — the 50-page spread Teller did of Mariacarla Boscono in the Summer 2008 issue of French men's mag Paradis Magazine is a different story.
Among the shots chronicling "an erotic journey" in Rome, there's one picture that gets up close and personal with Mariacarla's nether regions — very in-your-face, like an American Apparel ad taken to the next level. Paradis' goal is to tap into the French tradition of eroticism, and the other photos from the editorial fit that bill, but this crotch shot . . . well, not so much.

Fashion in the Mirror: Self-Reflection in Fashion Photography

The international photographers in this exhibition undress the theatre of fashion and question the creation of perfect beauty. Fashion in the Mirror is an overview of their self-examination and a rare look behind-the-scenes of fashion photography from the 1950s to the present day.

Finding both comedy and poetry in the set-up of the studio, the exhibiting photographers turn their cameras on the processes and paraphernalia of the fashion shoot. Photographers become mirrored in their own work and, as viewpoints are inverted and gazes misdirected, cameras stare back out at us expectantly.

Revealing the fashion industry’s secrets and undermining its glamorous illusions, the photographers in this exhibition create work that exposes this world from within.

New Vivienne Westwood Ad by Juergen Teller