We won’t deepen our understanding of the Holocaust with vanity projects like Juergen Teller’s misguided new work
T
o say that a picture speaks a thousand words might no longer ring true. As images proliferate at an unprecedented rate online, they risk losing their meaning, especially as AI poses a growing threat to the truth of what we see. We might ask why images of the relentless killing and devastation in Gaza, there for all to see, have not yet halted the slaughter of Palestinians.
Into this situation comes Juergen Teller, “enfant terrible” of 1990s fashion photography, who has produced a coffee-table book about the Nazis’ concentration and extermination camp in Auschwitz. This goes some way beyond his usual remit. Teller is known for his knack for making pretty things look ugly, as a shorthand for “authenticity”, associated with the grunge aesthetic and so-called “heroin chic”, which made him the most in-demand fashion photographer of his era.
The book, titled simply Auschwitz Birkenau, is published by the biggest German art book publisher, Steidl, with a cover designed by Peter Saville, the man behind so much revered Joy Division and Factory Records artwork
