Noise
WHERE WE COME FROM PART II: JUERGEN TELLER
WHERE WE COME FROM PART II
BY JUERGEN TELLER
WHERE WE COME FROM PART II: JUERGEN TELLER
Words: 420
Estimated reading time: 2M
THE CELEBRATED PHOTOGRAPHER AND HIS PARTNER AND COLLABORATOR DOVILE DRIZYTE GET PERSONAL FOR BEYOND NOISE’S INAUGURAL ISSUE.
By Morgan Becker
Juergen Teller—beloved around the world for his photographic portraits, fashion campaigns, and editorials—staged Where We Come From between June and November 2024 in his hometown of Erlangen, Germany. The Kunstpalais, the gallery at which the show was held, is no small institution; it’s a cultural hub for contemporary art in the Bavarian region and beyond. But it was a striking decision on the heels of I Need to Live, which ran around the start of the year at Paris’s Grand Palais Éphémère. Juergen, in fact, was the first living photographer to exhibit there.
It comes down to one of the central interests bolstering Juergen’s work, which stands apart from the crowd for its overexposed, unguarded frankness: He’s a nonconformist, interested in getting personal—laying his subjects bare, catching them in their element. Often, he’s his own subject. Other times, it’s his daughter Iggy or his partner and collaborator Dovile Drizyte. The couple conceived of Where We Come From together, diving into their European roots (Dovile’s hometown is Kaunas, Lithuania) through the people and the settings who first nurtured their creative spark.
Upon imagining who’d claim Beyond Noise’s inaugural insert—a small book reserved for art and photography portfolios, launched in tandem with each print issue—Juergen and Dovile made perfect sense, as visionary creatives and long-time champions of independent publishing. What emerged was Where We Come From Part II, the sequel to that Kunstpalais show, further reflecting upon the biggest show of Juergen’s career and juxtaposing it with slow domestic scenes: Iggy in the tub, fish and vegetables on a tablecloth, a nondescript brick building against snowy ground and foggy sky.
Whether Where We Come From Part III is on the horizon is up to Juergen and Dovile. To have its sophomore iteration as part of this magazine’s start is symbolic of Beyond Noise’s own beginnings and its future in the creative realm.
