A landmark photobook documenting a year of go-sees, as Juergen Teller photographed hundreds of aspiring models at the entrance to his London studio.
Go-Sees is a photobook by German photographer Juergen Teller. For Teller, working as a fashion photographer, the go-see was both a familiar ritual and a strangely revealing convention. Over the course of a year, from May 1998 to May 1999, he photographed hundreds of model hopefuls who came to visit his West London studio, making each portrait at the threshold of the building.
Sent by agents, the young women would arrive for brief meetings in which Teller looked through their portfolios over coffee or tea before photographing them in the doorway. Some appear as young as thirteen, some are accompanied by their parents, and some already carry the aura of future stardom. Among them is Adriana Lima, later to become one of the world’s most recognisable supermodels. In her accompanying text, Shannan Peckham writes that the go-see models become “far more than bearers of externally imposed aesthetic value.” Across 462 portraits taken in shifting light throughout the seasons, each sitter emerges as an individual while also seeming to dissolve into a single, collective image of “the model.”
One of the most celebrated titles published by the legendary Scalo, Go-Sees remains a defining masterpiece both within Teller’s practice and in the history of contemporary portrait photography.
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Title: Go-Sees
Artist: Juergen Teller
Publisher: Scalo
Format: Hardcover
Size: 210 × 280 mm
Pages: 480
Language: English
Edition: First edition
ISBN: 978-3-908247-14-2
A | Condition: Very Good. A well-preserved copy with light wear consistent with age.
B | Condition: Good. Staining to the front and back endpapers, page edges and spine, but no folds or major damage; the interior remains in very good condition.
