Photographer and longtime Marc Jacobs collaborator Juergen Teller reminisces about their exploits together, and reveals that a 2006 advertisement of a gay couple kissing proved even more controversial than a photo in which Teller grabbed Cindy Sherman’s clothed breasts. Men’s Vogue rejected the gay ad.

Teller spoke with The Moment, the fashion blog of The New York Times, in anticipation of next week’s publication of his book Marc Jacobs Advertising 1998–2009.

“Funnily enough the most complaints were about the series with Dick Page and James Gibbs because they are a gay couple,” said Teller about the ad featuring makeup artist Page and his husband. “Men’s Vogue even refused to publish it. Dick is a very close friend of mine and I’ve known him for 20 years -- he’s been part of the Marc family for 20 years. And I like the idea of having a gay couple in a men’s ad because it makes sense. And I wanted the ads to be like they are -- very romantic, tender, and sweet. I certainly didn’t want to have anything provocative, not at all. The only other controversy that comes to mind also involved Vogue -- the women’s one -- over an ad of a clothed Cindy Sherman and me in which I am grabbing her breasts. That caused a stir. Go figure.”

Men’s Vogue
, which once published 10 times per year, was scaled back to a twice-yearly publication last October.