Auguri, translated as ‘Congratulations’ or ‘Best wishes’ is a fitting title for Juergen Teller’s new solo exhibition of photographic works that have been predominately produced within the last two years and presented to a world slowly emerging from the global pandemic.

This show marks a celebration of a new chapter in Teller’s oeuvre through his productive and playful collaboration with his wife and muse, Dovile Drizyte. The centre piece of the show is the recent project, We are Building our Future Together (2021) which features Juergen and Dovile clad in high visibility work wear, pictured in construction sites in Venice and Napoli, where they got married this summer. As a viewer, we are invited to witness their performative and suggestive interventions with the surrounding paraphernalia – the road signs, pipes, drills, saws and machinery, producing a comic narrative that is symbolic of their fruitful and trusting relationship. As a development from his past series, Plates/Teller (2016), which acknowledged his namesake, each image has been imprinted on ceramic plates as well as conventional prints. Candid photographs of the wedding ceremony itself are interwoven into this editioned mixed-media art installation, creating a unique and engaging celebration of their marriage.

This prevailing sense of openness and ability to not take oneself too seriously is evident in Teller’s latest collaboration with JW Anderson, which reinvents the language of the Pirelli ‘pin-up’ calendar for the launch of the Women’s Spring Summer 2021 collection. Alongside the models that pose defiantly in a local tyre yard, Teller emerges awkwardly from inside a large truck tyre, wearing only black briefs and adopting unflattering poses and expressions. Not only does Teller make fun of the photographer stereotype, clutching his camera to assert his status, but also usurps popular representations of muscular masculine models, such as Herb Ritts’ famous 1984 image, ‘Fred with Tires’.

This form of staged performance is also clearly apparent in the Chanel fashion story, shot for the No.43, Winter 2020 issue of POP magazine, in which Teller cast his wife, Dovile as the model. Dressed in her Chanel attire and sporting a long black curly haired wig to complete her assigned persona, she becomes instantly transformed and willfully acts out various humourous scenarios in Parisian streets, allotments, waste grounds and by the river Seine itself.

The exhibition breaks down the boundary between inside and outside, with original Saint Laurent Spring Summer 2021 advertising photographs adorning the gallery walls, alongside in-situ images of their previous SS2019 campaign installed within the Parisian cityscape as fly posters, on bus shelters, in the metro or emblazoned across sweeping stairwells. Outside, the audience can see images from Teller’s latest campaigns for both Saint Laurent and Loewe sweeping across the city’s streets once more.

His editorial story, If You Pay Attention (2019), published in the Summer/Autumn 2020 issue of Arena Homme Plus, which was made in collaboration with, and starring his wife, Dovile, documented their beguiling, yet ultimately hazardous trip to Iran that coincided with the killing of General Soleimani and the unintentional shooting down of the Ukranian Airlines plane. This indirect kind of social commentary is an effective strategy, highlighting certain issues from his direct personal experience and making people think about what they are actually looking at.

Teller’s ability to capture his subjects in an authentic, instinctive manner has been long proven, whether it is the late filmmaker and artist, Agnes Varda or the Polish politician, Lech Walesa shot in the pre-Covid real world, or the Slovenian philosopher, Slavoj Zizek and World Chess champion, Garry Kasparov shot remotely during the pandemic via a mobile phone app. His working method still generates debate, yet Teller is able to deflect criticism into playfulness. Notes About My Work for the No.44, Spring/Summer 2021 issue of POP magazine is a reflective portfolio, picturing his portraits of Oscar nominees for W magazine taken on an LA street next to the studio in a Covid 19 safe manner, alongside screen grabs of the controversial social media response.

Iconic and pertinent photographs from Teller’s archive, such as Frozen Dead Dog (1993) or the infamous image of Kristen McMenamy with the Versace heart decorated on her chest from 1996 have been re- contextualised and re-purposed for a collaboration with London-based skateboarding and clothing brand, Palace, reaching new audiences and demonstrating his prevailing cultural influence.

Teller’s practice has shifted into a new era of close collaboration with his wife, yet his style remains as distinctive now as it was thirty years ago - making honest work about the world he encounters.