Juergen Teller - Woo!

Juergen Teller was born in Erlangen, Germany in 1964. Teller is an artist and Uk based fashion photographer. Currently a lot of Juergen Tellers work is in an exhibition in the London ICA called Woo!. When seeing this Exhibition I felt that it was very unusual and even though I wasn't quite shocked I felt that the photographs were very in your face as they were very big prints.

I really liked this photograph and felt that it was one of the best from the 'Woo!' exhibition. This is a photograph of Kurt Cobain and was taken in Juergen Tellers home country of Germany in 1991. The Picture was taken in the capital of Germany in Berlin in Juergen Tellers early photography career. Teller met Kurt Cobain and took this photograph when he got the opportunity to tag along with the band called 'Nirvana' while they were touring in germany. Back then the band were little known but became popular just after their tour in the summer of 1991. Teller took this photo of Cobain when he was hunched over and strumming his guitar. I feel that this position of Cobain and how his head is close to the guitar really shows how concentrated and how passionate Kurt Cobain is with music. The way Cobain's face is obscured almost gives the feeling that he has something to hide and that Teller is trying to divert the meaning so that the main focus of the photograph is music. I feel that Juergen Teller has accomplished this well because when first looking at this photograph my eyes were immediately drawn towards the guitar, but when reading the description of the photograph was when I then realised that the guitarist was Kurt Cobain (the lead singer, guitarist and primary songwriter of grunge band 'Nirvana'). After researching about Cobain I found that he had many problems throughout his life such as illnesses, depression and a heroin addiction. Depression final lead Kurt Cobain to death when in 1994 Cobain was found dead in his home in Seattle, Washington, United States with a shotgun across his body, a visible head wound and a suicide note discovered nearby. I really love this photograph as it really shows how under all the depression, illnesses and addictions that Kurt Cobain was passionate about his music. I also really like how this photograph of Kurt Cobain is in black and white as there is a very high contrast and different tones throughout photo, for example you can see the fine detail and how the light is reflected on Cobain's guitar and in his hair.