In an advertisement for Marc Jacobs, Juergen Teller photographed himself in bed with Charlotte Rampling.

By CATHY HORYN

Victoria Beckham, the former Spice Girl married to the soccer star David Beckham, is not a conventionally beautiful woman, but, to judge by Juergen Teller’s pictures of her in new ads for Marc Jacobs, she is willing to cooperate. Instead of looking like a glamorous celebrity, she has been rendered as an abstraction, a living doll. In the most disquieting image, we see only her bare, high-heeled legs flopping over the side of a shopping bag .
“I knew this wasn’t going to be Vogue,” Ms. Beckham said . “I knew I had to put myself in their hands, which could be quite scary.
” Mr. Teller met Ms. Beckham’s misgivings with a typical mixture of charm and candor. “I told her, ‘You’re the most photographed woman in the world,’ ”
Mr. Teller recalled. “ ‘And fashion nowadays is all about product - bags and shoes - and you’re kind of a product yourself, aren’t you-’ She was, like, ‘Uh, yeah.’ ”
If fashion shows are a way for a designer to think out loud, collaborations with a photographer can help combine those disparate ideas into a story. Both Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein owe a debt to the visionary eye of Bruce Weber, who is really a storyteller. Gianni Versace frequently paid homage to Richard Avedon, whose pictures lent imaginative energy to Versace’s designs.
Today, the most meaningful collaboration is between Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Teller. In one way or another their ads, begun in 1997, serve an authentic record of the distractions and tastes of the moment, though Mr. Jacobs insists that they are really about “someone I know or someone I’m interested in seeing in my clothes.”
An astonishing array of people have appeared in the ads, generally doing not much - lying in the grass, kicking up their heels, teasing a squirrel. The group has included the director Sofia Coppola, the actors Dakota Fanning and Winona Ryder and the photographer William Eggleston . Even Mr. Teller has put in an appearance, in makeup and wigs with Cindy Sherman and in bed with Charlotte Rampling.
“It was always free,” said Mr. Teller, who is German and lives in London with his wife, Sadie Coles, an art dealer, and their young son, Ed. “Marc and I just discuss. ‘Oh, it would be great to have that person.’ He introduced me to Sofia Coppola, and I thought, ‘Oh, it would be really great to photograph her’ and Marc said, ‘Yeah, why don’t we do a bag ad.’ ”
Most photographers do not have Mr. Teller’s level of freedom. As Mr. Teller said, he and Mr. Jacobs have a chat at the start of a season, and Mr. Jacobs never directs him. “It’s really that simple,” Mr. Jacobs said.
Breaking into a grin, he added: “Juergen is Juergen Teller’s biggest fan - full stop. Usually after the shoot I get a phone call from him …” - Mr. Jacobs dropped into a German accent - ‘The pictures are really excellent, they’re really excellent.’ I think he uses the word excellent a lot.”