Quotes from Juergen Teller

In order to do something really good, you have to take risks - that's what I do.

I had no visual imagination as a child. I liked playing football. That was it.

I couldn't identify with the images in 'Elle' or 'Vogue' or 'Harper's Bazaar.' Nobody in the world we're walking around in actually looks like that.

What's the point of shorts if they're not short?

I don't understand longer shorts. I don't think they look good on anyone.

I don't try to be original; I just always want to do something that excites me.

I have a way of opening up people and gaining their trust. I think they can see my vulnerability because I'm unafraid to admit if something doesn't quite work.

My father never really encouraged me or even took an interest after I walked away from the family business. No one did except my mother and my grandfather. To be truthful, I cannot remember one meaningful conversation I had with my father.

Everything I choose to photograph, I think is beautiful.

Normally, whenever I try to photograph my mother, she is extremely impatient and will only stand for a minute and insists on knowing exactly what I'm doing.

I try and photograph people as they are. I do not want to hide anything. I want to bring across a personality, a humanity. It is not a case of model A or model B against a white background. I am interested in the person.

I take it very seriously, the photographic craft.

Most fashion photography is done by gay people finding women sexy - which is sort of not sexy at all, at least to a heterosexual man.

I am someone who takes pleasure in exploring the full scale of the medium photography. I am a photographer.

You have a negative, and you can have an influence whether you want to have it more contrasty or less contrasty; you can pre-flash the photo paper. You can make it warmer or colder, lighter, darker. This is all a way of manipulating the image in a normal way, not changing the pixels.

I'm interested in the person I photograph. The world is so beautiful as it is; there's so much going on, which is sort of interesting. It's just so crazy, so why do I have to put some retouching on it? It's just pointless to me.

If I do a portrait, I know what they can take. If somebody's a sweet, shy person, the photographs will be sweet and shy. Of course, you ask people to do something which they might not have done before, but that's the journey, the fun element.

I don't really like being controlled by anyone.

I cycle whenever possible around London. But I travel first class when I need to fly.

I go, wherever there is my interest, where my heart and feeling take me.

It's important to be involved in different things for me.

My childhood was very beautiful in some ways and very disturbing in others.

For me, cinema is very important. I grew up with television; then, as a teenager, you discover cinema.

I think my strength is to act instinctively, really quickly, on what I believe, what I see in this person. A proper portrait. I wouldn't dream of doing something inappropriate for that person. I guess I make the person comfortable around me.