Juergen Teller

I wasn't aware it could make me rich or famous. I just wanted to take pictures.

I like physical exercise. I cycle, run, and play tennis and football with my son.

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

A few brands have asked me to design shorts for them. I'm not sure about that. I don't want to have them as a mass product, and suddenly everybody is walking around in them.

I don't care what other people think. I hate conforming, that you have to wear this to a business meeting or that to a dinner. I've never worked that way.

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

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

In Bavaria, many homes have a cosy room which is all wood and is filled with special things. My grandfather had such a room, and he made the panels on the walls himself; each one told a story.

When you have your own kid, it suddenly makes you more aware of how your parents treated you and educated you. Your relationships with your partner, your uncles, your mother all change; you're more conscious of where you came from, of where your roots are. I find that very interesting.

It was really inspiring to be in West London in the late 1980s and early 1990s, especially in Mark Lebon's Crunch Studios, where I met people like Ray Petri, Neneh Cherry, Judy Blame, Nick and Barry Kamen, Zoe Bedeaux, and Venetia Scott.

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

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

It's important to spend time with your work. That's when you see it, when you have a feeling.

I take it very seriously, the photographic craft.

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.

I want adventure in my life. I want to do things I haven't done before. These Hollywood people are so careful of their image and looking right, but there's a wildness when I come into the photographs. I just want to wade through rivers, climb mountains.

I never really think of anyone as models, even the models.

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

Everything I choose to photograph, I think is beautiful.

I've never really understood tattoos. I mean, it's your body - why would you wanna scar it? I don't mind other people's tattoos, but I just never got it.

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

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

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

I find it quite fascinating to see how the body works.

I like the luxurious, dressing-up aspect of fashion.

Quite frankly, if I didn't enjoy the fashion industry, then I wouldn't continue to do it.

Family is a major part of my life.

I'm interested in extrovert characters, people who are doing something. But I used to only be able to photograph people I was interested in or attracted to, either psychologically or physically. That all changed when I did the 'Go Sees.'

I like the idea that things can exist in different formats - in a gallery, a fashion ad, in books.

When I came to London in 1986, I was amazed at how prudish everyone was.

In Germany, the body is treated rather differently than in the U.K. or U.S. I grew up with a swimming pool in our garden and a sauna in our basement.

My father and one of my grandfathers died very early, and female figures have been an influential part of my life.

I always work with two cameras. Its kind of like I'm hypnotizing the subject with the flashing. It's a bombardment of action, flashes, and I think it helps them to ease into the process.

I like Ryan McGinley's work.

I would be lost without my family.

Back in 2000, I didn't have a mobile phone.

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.

When I became a father, all that stuff rose up again from the back of my mind. I suddenly realised how uninvolved my father had been in my life.

One day, I'll be photographing Kate Moss in Paris, then I'll be on Stephanie Seymour's ranch with her hundred horses wondering what exactly it is I'm doing there.

I think the range of my life shows in my work.

I think it's really important to not be afraid of failure and to push yourself to try things and jump in the cold water.

I never work with a screen. Other photographers have this black thing around, and they go back and look at it. I'd rather spend the time with the subject, photographing or discussing or talking, than staring at this thing. I'd rather look at what's going on.

I just want to do everything as good as I possibly can.

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

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.

I have a Mercedes. I wear a Rolex watch. I have no problem with the selling of things.

I just really like women, and I like men, and I like children, and I like eating, and I like doing everything.

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.