Juergen Teller On Creative Freedom and Collaborating With Vivienne Westwood

“I’m just so excited, putting all my work together,” says photographer Juergen Teller, speaking from New York, where last night he celebrated the opening of an exhibition charting an epic period of collaboration between the prolific image-maker and Dame Vivienne Westwood. “The first picture I took in 1993, and the last picture in spring 2017. While doing the catalogue of the exhibition and installing the show, I realised how excited I am that you actually can’t tell the pictures taken in 1995 apart from 2005 or, in fact, 2017.”

Of course, he is right. There are few creative endeavours that have such enduring appeal as that between Teller, Westwood and Andreas Kronthaler – and it seems as though this timelessness is rooted in the shared vision of the trio. Whether he’s capturing a disheveled Pamela Anderson in a Los Angeles launderette, or an axe-wielding Westwood, Teller has consistently captured the subversive spirit of the brand with every picture he has taken for them.

“I’m also excited seeing the casting, the excellent clothes, the different locations,” he continues. “Whether it’s a studio or far away places - it melts into one thing which is Vivienne, Andreas and me working together in a vision we all three absolutely share. I cherish the sense of freedom they give me and I truly want to celebrate this and show it to the world.”

Teller's gleeful enthusiasm sets this archive apart from the saturated streams and glossy feeds of the digital age. That, and the fact that Teller's campaign imagery is worlds away from the painstakingly airbrushed sort that we are far more familiar with in 2017; if anything, he revels in the liberation that imperfection affords. For those who aren’t in New York in the next few weeks (the exhibition, held at Vivienne Westwood’s flagship store in the city is open until the end of October), or are seeking a more permanently tangible celebration of the work, invest in the book (which, as of today, is stocked at all Vivienne Westwood stores). We wholeheartedly endorse it.