Juergen Teller, Holland

David Dalley

'Teller', an exhibition of new work by German photographer Juergen Teller, is currently on show at De Hallen Haarlem in the Netherlands, a partial follow-up to 'Märchenstüberl’, his introspective 2003 exhibition at the same gallery which explored his family's past. The raw, vaguely disturbing collection is an obscure mix of personal references and other recent work.

See more photos from Juergen Teller's exhibition

An ethereal Björk with a faceful of dark, unchewed spaghetti sits prostrate at a bare dinner table; dog carcasses lie decaying in India; naked women pose awkwardly among brightly lit furniture; Brazilian model Raquel Zimmerman floats around the kitsch, grounded interior of Teller's parental home in Germany; and legendary photographer William Eggleston plays a grand piano in an empty Memphis parking lot at night (pictured above).

These aren't stories we know but they're stories all the same, captured with Teller's intimate aesthetic that has, in turn, become the trademark conceit of the celebrity-riddled, tongue-in-cheek ad campaigns he's shot for Marc Jacobs (remember Victoria Beckham obscured by a giant shopping bag and a naked Charlotte Rampling), YSL and Vivienne Westwood. He doesn't compromise for his commercial work – his ads seem more like personal projects with a fashion brand slapped across the frame incidentally – which in Teller's case is perhaps the very reason for his success.

10 December 2008 | Art