FASHION'S BOTTOM LINE

FASHION'S BOTTOM LINE

Juergen Teller proves not all nudity is pornographic

by KOD Staff

Pornography is everywhere. From music videos and bestselling books to advertising, pornification is infiltrating every part of our culture. The media reacts with panic and a witch-hunt begins for images signalling moral decline. But nudity can be used for a range of reasons and the work of Juergen Teller reveals it is not always derogatory.

i-D Magazine recently released the think-piece: “When did Fashion become Porn?” Similar scare headlines have become a way for journalists to expand their readerships, whilst deriding handfuls of photographers as pornographers. The Guardian’s Hadley Freeman mistakes visual similarities for moral affinities in her article, ‘Fashion’s Shameful Secret’. Expanding her criticism of playboy provocateur Terry Richardson to apply to any photographer who dare use nudity in their work, she absentmindedly groups Juergen Teller alongside American Apparel adverts.

Juergen Teller, 'Louis XV', 2004

Juergen Teller, 'Louis XV', 2004

To call all images crass is to misunderstand nudity and pornography within the fashion industry. The definition of porn is rooted in titillation and sexual arousal; to feel aroused by many of Teller’s photographs is not only difficult but downright inappropriate. Reclining on a piano, legs up, ass cheeks spread, there is nothing appetizing about Teller’s ‘Louis XV’ Marc Jacob’s shoot with Charlotte Rampling. Here, grotesque nudity makes the shoot comical, yet disturbing.

From an artist who called his 2013 ICA show ‘Woo’ after Will Ferrell’s character in ‘Eastbound and Down’, to consider many of his images as pornographic is to take them all too seriously. He teases the viewer with visual puns. The 2008 image ‘Octopussy’, is an absurd joke on porn’s visual depictions of women; an octopus on a dishevelled bed, tentacles open, acting as a bizarre representation of a vagina. Teller dares his audience to see the genital similarities while making it clear that it’s all a product of the viewer's own dirty mind.

'Octopussy’ is an absurd joke on porn’s visual depictions of women; an octopus acting as a bizarre representation of a vagina. 

Most contentious though are Teller’s images of nude women –as always, depictions of naked males fail to qualify as porn in popular culture. Female genitalia, as displayed by model Kristen McMenamy in Teller’s 2005 Marc Jacobs shoot, is frequently labelled pornographic and exploitative. But Teller’s images use nudity to comment on the fashion industry’s dehumanization of its models. He reminds us that models are not mannequins – underneath the gold dress is a real woman.

An attractive woman does not instantly create porn by unveiling her genitals. These images, consumed mostly by the female audience of fashion magazines, are not for arousal: here a vagina is shocking and graphic, but not titillating. Thanks to its shock factor, nudity has always had the potential to make a statement.

Juergen Teller, 'Kristen Lifting Skirt', 2005

Juergen Teller, 'Kristen Lifting Skirt', 2005

Teller also confronts the relationship between nudity and sex through the women he shoots. His 2009 series, of Vivienne Westwood reclining nude, strikes that difficult balance between the female form and the iconic designer. Shot in a classical style, at home after a family Sunday lunch, Westwood looks relaxed being photographed by her friend – her nudity allowing an intimacy with the viewer that high fashion can inhibit. Teller believes, “Nudity is the most natural form of how you are”.

There is nothing threatening about Teller’s camera. Cindy Sherman’s 1981 ‘Centerfolds’ Series is one of the best known visual critiques of the male gaze – her characters lie vulnerable on the floor in pornographic poses. Teller uses similar positions in his work but his camera seems removed and disinterested in the female subject. His trademark off-centre framing directs the viewer’s eye away from the model; the woman is not the focus. 

Juergen Teller, Vivienne Westwood, 2011

Juergen Teller, Vivienne Westwood, 2011

However smutty photography is certainly alive in fashion photography. In an industry where Terry Richardson can strip naked, put young female models into compromising poses and touch them whilst shooting, there are discussions that must be had about model vulnerability. Fashion takes the idea that “sex sells” to extremes yet we cannot judge all photographers by Richardson’s track record.

Images must be put into context. An artist’s model is not a stripper and American Apparel adverts have a different appeal to the work of Juergen Teller. Moral panic may sell newspapers and magazines but it does nothing to fix representation problems by blanket labelling all images of women. Not all nudity is sexual.  

Leave a comment

Please note: comments must be approved before they are published.

MEET THE ARTISTS CHINA CAN'T KEEP CONTAINED

Artists Sun Yuan & Peng Yu display dead babies & live animals at Guggenheim Museum Exhibition

Peter Yeung

Read more »
Share »

JOSEPH BEUYS: I LIKE AMERICA AND AMERICA LIKES ME

What we can learn from artist about race relations and how to heal a nation    

Peter Yeung

Read more »
Share »

A SEXLESS SOCIETY IS HERE

Fashion rides the gender blending trend  

Maria Raposo

Read more »
Share »

NAN GOLDIN: THE BALLAD OF SEXUAL DEPENDENCY

The artist captures the essence of humanity and life on the edge

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »

THE HEDI SLIMANE EFFECT ON YVES SAINT LAURENT

How the designer remade the house of Yves Saint Laurent

Maria Raposo

Read more »
Share »

SYNCHRODOGS: “I must be dreaming”

We speak to the photography duo about synchronicity & the power of dreams

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »

THE COLLAGE RENAISSANCE

Contemporary collage is the new Pop Art collectors are buying into

Harriet Baker

Read more »
Share »

DAVID BOWIE PUSHED THE LIMITS OF MUSIC, ART & FASHION

Bowie was an artist and an explorer that embodied true individuality that our generation craves

Fiona Ma

Read more »
Share »

MEET THE ARTISTS CHINA CAN'T KEEP CONTAINED

Artists Sun Yuan & Peng Yu display dead babies & live animals at Guggenheim Museum Exhibition

Peter Yeung

Read more »
Share »

JOSEPH BEUYS: I LIKE AMERICA AND AMERICA LIKES ME

What we can learn from artist about race relations and how to heal a nation    

Peter Yeung

Read more »
Share »

A SEXLESS SOCIETY IS HERE

Fashion rides the gender blending trend  

Maria Raposo

Read more »
Share »

NAN GOLDIN: THE BALLAD OF SEXUAL DEPENDENCY

The artist captures the essence of humanity and life on the edge

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »

THE HEDI SLIMANE EFFECT ON YVES SAINT LAURENT

How the designer remade the house of Yves Saint Laurent

Maria Raposo

Read more »
Share »

SYNCHRODOGS: “I must be dreaming”

We speak to the photography duo about synchronicity & the power of dreams

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »

THE COLLAGE RENAISSANCE

Contemporary collage is the new Pop Art collectors are buying into

Harriet Baker

Read more »
Share »

DAVID BOWIE PUSHED THE LIMITS OF MUSIC, ART & FASHION

Bowie was an artist and an explorer that embodied true individuality that our generation craves

Fiona Ma

Read more »
Share »

FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY GETS HYPER-REAL

From Erwin Blumenfeld to Nick Knight, fashion constructs fantastical images

Greg French

Read more »
Share »

THE EVOCATIVE IMAGES OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Eminent street photographers find beauty in the ordinary

Leah Sinclair

Read more »
Share »

THE ZINE SCENE IS BACK

Self-Publishing is Having a Moment and It’s Redefining Youth and Self Expression

Leah Sinclair

Read more »
Share »

PLASTIC PURGERY – BARBIE IN BONDAGE BREAKS THE INTERNET

Photographer Mariel Clayton Reinvents the Stereotype of the Female Form

Fiona Ma

Read more »
Share »

LOUIS VUITTON - SERIES 3 EXHIBITION

Nicolas Ghesquière: less mask, more man

Maria Raposo

Read more »
Share »

REGENERATION OR GENTRIFICATION?

The changing face of London’s artistic communities

Peter Yeung

Read more »
Share »

INSIDE THE CHELSEA HOTEL

The legendary New York hangout of rockstars and Hollywood royalty

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »

IN CONVERSATION WITH OLAF BREUNING

The artist talks about the endless interpretations of his work and life

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »

REVEALED: KURT COBAIN'S ORIGINAL ARTWORK

A dark look into the mind of Nirvana’s tortured frontman

Daryl Mersom

Read more »
Share »

ABOUT A GIRL: TEENAGERS IN POP CULTURE

Exploring media fantasies from saints to bad-ass sinners of female youth

Leah Sinclair

Read more »
Share »

ART GONE VIRAL

Performance art videos are paving the way for activism through social media

Leah Sinclair

Read more »
Share »

IN CONVERSATION WITH ARTIST TOM LEAMON

The ritual experiments of painting and poetry

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »

COLLAGE ARTIST HOLLY-ANNE BUCK/COLLAGISM

We talk to the artist about playing with abstraction & reconstructing reality

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »

FROM UNISEX TO ANTI-FASHION

Meet Rudi Gernreich, the first gender blender fashion activist

Alessandro Esculapio

Read more »
Share »

THE REVIVAL OF WARP N’ WEFT

From artisan to art; the lost craft of tapestry is making a comeback

KOD Staff

Read more »
Share »

THE ALCHEMY OF COLLAGE: ARTISTS IRINA & SILVIU SZEKELY

Art is not art if it doesn’t generate misrepresentation, confusion, anger or sarcasm

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »

THE CREATIVE CLASS: MAKING IT THEIR WAY

Photographer Francesca Allen captures the talented, genuine and real

Maria Raposo

Read more »
Share »

'80S ICON KEITH HARING’S POP SHOP

The Art and Commerce of Giving Back

Alessandro Esculapio

Read more »
Share »

THE DEATH OF BRONSON

The art and literature of "Charles Bronson"; Britain's most notorious prisoner

KOD Staff

Read more »
Share »

THE PSYCHEDELIC LOVE-IN OF THE FABULOUS COCKETTES

San Francisco’s original underground glitter troupe

KOD Staff

Read more »
Share »

THE MODERN DAY DANDY CULT

Old fashioned values and classic sartorial style returns to mens fashion

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »
Top